Acacia longifolia (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Acacia longifolia (Andr.) Willd.

Family: Leguminosae - Mimosoideae

Synonyms

• Mimosa longifolia Andr.

Vernacular names

• Sydney golden wattle, sallow (En).

Distribution

Native to extratropical eastern Australia and Tasmania. Widely cultivated in the Old World Tropics, e.g. in mountain regions of West Java and in Indo-China.

Uses

Planted for soil improvement, as a fast-growing cover crop and green manure. Useful as a nurse tree for establishing eucalypts on poor soil and for fixing dunes. It produces gum and the bark is suitable for tanning. Also a potential ornamental plant.

Observations

• Erect, unarmed shrub or small tree, 3-10 m tall. Young branches sharply triangular, older ones with angular ribs.
• Phyllodes variable in shape and size, oblong-lanceolate to narrowly linear, 4-16 cm × 3-25 mm, with 1-5 main veins.
• Inflorescence a loose, interrupted, simple spike, 1-3 per leaf axil, 2-5 cm long.
• Flowers 4-merous, yellow, fragrant.
• Pod linear, straight or somewhat curved, 2.5-15 cm × 5-6(-10) mm, constricted between the 3-11 seeds; funicle thickened, arilloid.

In Australia A. elata occurs mainly near the coast. It is considered invasive and weedy in South Africa, where it was introduced to stabilize dunes. It can be successfully controlled biologically by pteromalid gall wasps and curculionid weevils.

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.
• Flora Malesiana (various editors), 1950-. Series 1. Volume 1, 4-. Kluwer, Dordrecht & Flora Malesiana Foundation, Leiden, the Netherlands.
• Graham, E.H., 1941. Legumes for erosion control and wildlife. United States Department of Agriculture, Miscellaneous Publication 412.
• 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.
• Ross, J.H., 1975. The naturalized and cultivated exotic Acacia species in South Africa. Bothalia 11: 463-470.

Authors

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