Acacia mangium Willd. - A Fast Growing Tree for Tropical Plantation

Taxonomy

Acacia mangium Willd. belongs to Acacia genus, which was originally described as Mangium montanum Rumph in Herbarium Amboinense 3:123, t.81 (1750) but transferred to Acacia by C.L. Willdenow in Sp. Plant 4: 1053 (1806). The specific name is an allusion to Rumphius’ observation that this tree resembled ‘mangge’ or mangroves in Indonesia. Acacia contains 1,200-1,300 species and is divided into three subgenus: Acacia, Aculeiferum and Phyllodinae (Maslin 1995). A. mangium is in Phyllodinae subgenus classed into seven sections, containing more than 900 species (Maslin and McDonald 1996). A. mangium is assigned to section Juliflorae (235 species), a group characterized by having flowers in elongated spikes and numerous phyllodes, often anatomizing by longitudinal nerves. A. mangium may easily be confused with A. holosericea and A. neurocarpa, but it can be readily distinguished by its arborescent habit, glabrous phyllodes and branchlets, white to cream flower spikes and seed with an orange aril (Maslin and McDonald 1996), while other two occur naturally as shrubs or small trees on drier sites.