Acacia tomentosa (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Acacia tomentosa Willd.

Family: Leguminosae - Mimosoideae

Synonyms

• Mimosa tomentosa (Willd.) Rottler,
• Acacia chrysocoma Miquel.

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: kolampis (Sundanese), klampis (Javanese), ai kendara (Sumba)
• Thailand: krathin-phiman (central), khaya, nam khao (northern)
• Vietnam: böröbu (southern).

Distribution

Occurring naturally from India (Maharashtra, Gujarat) through Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, Indo-China to Indonesia (Java, Madura, Sumba, Sumbawa, Sulawesi).

Uses

Grown as a ground-cover shrub and green manure, also providing fuel and utility wood. Leaves are browsed by goats and cattle. The red-brown bark is used for ropes and as a medicine for horses.

Observations

• Deciduous, armed tree with umbrella-shaped crown, 5-10(-18) m tall, stem diameter up to 50 cm, young parts densely yellow-hairy. Bark dark brown, irregularly fissured. Leaves and inflorescences on short shoots.
• Leaves bipinnate, with 7-25 pairs of pinnae; stipules spinescent, up to 4.5 cm long, straight; petiole 0.5-1 cm long with a gland just below the proximal pair of pinnae; rachis 3-9 cm long with glands on the junctions of 1-2 distal pairs of pinnae; leaflets 12-50 pairs, linear, 1-4 mm × 0.4-1 mm, opposite, sessile.
• Inflorescence a pedunculate glomerule, 1.5 cm in diameter, 1-7 in the axils of upper leaves, white or yellowish-white, fragrant.
• Pod curved, thin, 9-18 cm × 1 cm, 2-10-seeded.

A. tomentosa is found in teak forest and coastal savanna and brushwood vegetation, up to 1000 m altitude. It is planted on bunds of rice fields and along roadsides.

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.
• Dassanayake, M.D. & Fosberg, F.R. (Editors), 1980-. A revised handbook to the flora of Ceylon. volume 1-. Amerind Publishing Co., New Delhi, India.
• Flora Malesiana (various editors), 1950-. Series 1. Volume 1, 4-. Kluwer, Dordrecht & Flora Malesiana Foundation, Leiden, the Netherlands.
• Flore du Cambodge, du Laos et du Viêt-nam [Flora of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam] (various editors), 1960-. Volume 1-. Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Laboratoire de Phanérogamie, Paris, France.
• 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.
• Kamis Awang & Taylor, D.A. (Editors), 1993. Acacias for rural, industrial, and environmental development. Proceedings of the second meeting of the Consultative Group for Research and Development of Acacias (COGREDA) held in Udorn Thani, Thailand, February 15-18, 1993. Winrock International Institute for Agricultural Research & Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Bangkok, Thailand. 258 pp.
• Smitinand, T., Larsen, K. & Hanssen, B. (Editors), 1970-. Flora of Thailand. Volume 2-. Danida, TISTR Press, Bangkok, Thailand.

Authors

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