Acacia flavescens (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Acacia flavescens A. Cunn. ex Benth.

Family: Leguminosae - Mimosoideae

Synonyms

• Racosperma flavescens (A. Cunn. ex Benth.) Pedley.

Vernacular names

• Red wattle, yellow wattle (En).

Distribution

Occurring naturally in Australia (coastal Queensland), and is cultivated in Papua New Guinea.

Uses

Provides good, dense fuelwood. Suitable plant for erosion control in fire-prone areas. Foliage palatable to cattle. Bark contains 10-26% tannin. Wood attractively marked, close-grained, hard, brown.

Observations

• Unarmed straggling tree up to 10 m tall with straight stem and dark bark furrowed longitudinally. Branchlets angular with rather dense, grey-white, stellate hairs.
• Phyllodes ovate-falcate, 9-24 cm × 1-6 cm, with 3 prominent longitudinal veins, the upper 2 terminating at the margin with an indentation, usually with a gland.
• Inflorescence a globose head, grouped in terminal panicles 30 cm in diameter, each head consisting of up to 50 pale yellow flowers.
• Pod flat, somewhat winged, 6-12 cm × 1-2 cm, shining.
• Seed transverse, 6 mm × 4 mm, black, aril small and pale.

A. flavescens coppices well, with vigorous regrowth from root suckers. It is found in coastal lowlands from 0-150(-1000) m altitude with 1000-2150 mm annual rainfall, on a wide range of soils (from sandy, well-drained, acid to neutral, to laterite ridges).

Selected sources

• Flora Malesiana (various editors), 1950-. Series 1. Volume 1, 4-. Kluwer, Dordrecht & Flora Malesiana Foundation, Leiden, the Netherlands.
• Simmons, M., 1987. Acacias of Australia. 2nd Edition. Volume 1. Nelson, Melbourne, Australia. 327 pp.
• Turnbull, J.W., 1986. Multipurpose Australian trees and shrubs. Lesser-known species for fuelwood and agroforestry. ACIAR Monograph No 1. Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, Canberra, Australia. 316 pp.
• Verdcourt, B., 1979. A manual of New Guinea legumes. Botany Bulletin No 11. Office of Forests, Division of Botany, Lae, Papua New Guinea. 645 pp.

Authors

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