Acacia elata (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Acacia elata A. Cunn. ex Benth.

Family: Leguminosae - Mimosoideae

Synonyms

• Acacia terminalis auct.,
• Racosperma elatum (Benth.) Pedley.

Vernacular names

• Mountain hickory, (mountain) cedar wattle (En).

Distribution

Originates from Australia (New South Wales), occasionally cultivated in Africa, India, Sri Lanka and Java.

Uses

Planted for green manure in e.g. Cinchona plantations in Sri Lanka and West Java, where it grows well and fast. Wood pulp has proved to be excellent for making paper. Bark contains 20-31% tannin, used in South Africa. Also grown as ornamental.

Observations

• Unarmed tree up to 25 m tall. Branchlets terete, finely puberulous.
• Leaves bipinnately compound; petiole 8 cm long, with an elliptical gland halfway; rachis 11-17 cm long; pinnae 2-4 pairs, 8-14 cm long; leaflets opposite, subsessile, 8-14 pairs per pinna, ovate-oblong to ovate-lanceolate, 3-5 cm × 4-9 mm, both surfaces slightly appressed-puberulous.
• Inflorescence a pedunculate glomerule, 0.5 cm in diameter, arranged in axillary racemes or terminal panicles, whitish to light yellow.
• Pod oblongoid, 10-15 cm × 1.2 cm, 6-12-seeded.

A. elata grows along rivers and in ravines.

Selected sources

• Backer, C.A. & Bakhuizen van den Brink Jr., R.C., 1963-1968. Flora of Java. 3 volumes. Wolters-Noordhoff, Groningen, the Netherlands. 647, 641, 761 pp.
• Bentham, G. & von Mueller, F., 1863-1878. Flora australiensis: a description of the plants of the Australian territory. 7 volumes. Reeve, London, United Kingdom.
• Elliot, W.R. & Jones, D.L., 1980-1990. Encyclopaedia of Australian plants suitable for cultivation. 5 volumes. Lothian, Melbourne, Australia.
• Flora Malesiana (various editors), 1950-. Series 1. Volume 1, 4-. Kluwer, Dordrecht & Flora Malesiana Foundation, Leiden, the Netherlands.
• Heyne, K., 1950. De nuttige planten van Indonesië [The useful plants of Indonesia]. 3rd Edition. 2 volumes. W. van Hoeve, the Hague, the Netherlands/Bandung, Indonesia. 261, 1450 pp.
• Lazarides, M. & Hince, B. (Editors), 1993. CSIRO handbook of economic plants of Australia. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. 330 pp.
• Mansfeld, R., 1986. Verzeichnis landwirtschaflicher und gärtnerischer Kulturpflanzen (ohne Zierpflanzen) [Register of cultivated agricultural and horticultural plants (without ornamentals)]. Schultze-Motel, J. et al., editors 2nd edition, 4 volumes. Springer Verlag, Berlin, Germany. 1998 pp.

Authors

• M.S.M. Sosef & L.J.G. van der Maesen