Acacia leptocarpa (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Acacia leptocarpa A. Cunn. ex Benth.

Protologue: Lond. Journ. Bot. 1: 376 (1842).

Racosperma leptocarpum (A. Cunn. ex Benth.) Pedley (1987).

Lesser Sunda Islands (Wetar), southern New Guinea and Australia (coastal Queensland and Northern Territory); also planted in trials in Thailand, Papua New Guinea and East Africa, as well as in industrial plantations in Kalimantan and Sumatra.

The wood is used as wattle. Because of its decorative figure it is often used for turnery and cabinet work; it is also used for firewood and is suitable for pulp production.

A small tree up to 12 m tall, bole branchless for up to 4 m, up to 25 cm in diameter, bark surface deeply longitudinally fissured, grey-black, inner bark dark red, branchlets only distally angular; phyllodes falcate, (10-)12-21(-26) cm × 1-2.6 cm, 6-15(-17) times as long as wide, with 3 major yellowish longitudinal veins, secondary veins anastomosing; flowers in spikes, 5-merous, corolla 1.6-2.4 mm long; pod somewhat coiled, 4-12 cm × 0.3 cm, subwoody, inconspicuously veined. A. leptocarpa occurs usually clustered in grassland and savanna woodland, and in monsoon scrub vegetation, often associated with Banksia , Melaleuca and Tristania spp., at 10-30 m altitude in Malesia, but up to 550 m in Australia.

162, 649, 350, 672.