Black wattle - Acacia mangium

Acacia mangium
Willd.Family: lug-Fabaceae (bean family) 
Common name: acacia, mangium 
Name: black wattle, scabies

Acacia mangium is a species of flowering tree of the pea family, Fabaceae, is native of northeastern Queensland, Australia, the Western Province of Papua New Guinea, Papua and the Moluccas east. Common names include black wattle, acacia mangium Hickory. Its uses include environmental management and wood. Acacia mangium grows up to 30 meters (98 feet) tall, often with a straight trunk. This tree is widely used in the mining industry in Goa for the rehabilitation of landfills as it is a species resistant to drought and binding on the mine waste rock strata composed of laterite. Like many other legumes, it is able to fix nitrogen in the SOI

Acacia mangium is an important multipurpose tree tropical lowlands. Mangium is a leading fast growing species used in plantation forestry programs throughout Asia, the Pacific and the humid tropics. It has become naturalized in Puerto Rico, Brazil and many other areas. With its rapid growth and tolerance of very poor soils, mangium plays an increasingly important in efforts to maintain a supply of commercial tree products while reducing pressure on natural forest ecosystems.

Mangium (Acacia mangium) wood is hard, with a specific gravity core from 0.65 to 0.69. It produces wood that is useful for a variety of purposes. The sapwood is cream colored and the heart wood is dark brown ash-yellow or light brown with a pinkish tinge and is not clearly demarcated from the sapwood.

This wood is good for furniture, cabinetry, turning, and floors. It is also suitable for particleboard, plywood, veneer, pulp, fence posts, wood and charcoal. Non-timber uses include honey production, adhesives and as an ornamental and shade for roads or other uses of urban forestry. The leaves can be used as fodder for livestock.

Mangium grain is generally interlocked with a medium luster, texture is moderately fine and uniform, it is without distinctive odor or taste. The Janka hardness test side shows 1280 pounds for green waste and £ 1750 to 12 percent moisture. Drying of the wood produced at a moderate speed, and light curing defects can occur, such as cracking at the ends and small side cracks. It is reported to be moderately resistant to preservative treatments.

There are no data on the properties of work or machining characteristics, but tests in Australia indicate its ability to cut into veneer. It is reported to be moderately resistant to preservative treatments.

Acacia mangium is native to Australia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, but now has a broader latitude and longitude. Introduced in Costa Rica, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Malaysia, Nepal and the Philippines, Acacia mangium is a low elevation species associated with rain forest margins and disturbed, well-drained acid soils (pH 4.5 to 6.5). Altitudinal range is from sea level to over 100 meters (328 feet), with an upper limit of 780 meters (2560 feet).

 It is usually found in the wetland, lowland tropical climate characterized by a short dry season and an average annual rainfall between 1500-3000 mm (59-118 inches). Acacia mangium can tolerate a minimum annual rainfall of 1000 mm (39.4 inches). Average monthly temperatures tolerated range from a minimum of 13-21 º (55-70 º F) to a maximum of 25 to 32 º C (77-90 º F). Although considered an evergreen species, mangium not grow continuously throughout the year, growth appears to slow or stop in response to the combination of low rainfall and cool temperatures.

A tree up to 30 m (98.4 feet) in height and diameter rarely exceeds 50 cm (20 in.) dbh. The trunk can be unbranched for more than half of the total height of the tree, it is sometimes fluted at the base. The bark is rough and furrowed, gray or brown. The dark green, glabrous (lacking hair) leaves are large, up to 25 cm (9.8 inch) long, 3 to 10 cm (1.2 to 3.94 inches) wide, usually with four main longitudinal nerves; on young trees, the leaves are compound. The flowers have a sweet smell sweet, they are white or cream, in spikes rather loose up to 10 cm (3.94 inch) long, single or in pairs in the corners of the upper leaves.
The pods are large, linear, and irregularly coiled, and the seeds are shiny dark brown to black. Seeds mature 6-7 months after flowering.

Since mangium can grow on marginal soils, many farmers choose to plant this species to improve soil fertility and fallow fields or pastures. Mangium trees with a diameter of 7 cm (2.76 inches) are resistant to fire, so the plantations, they can be used as a firewall. This species has been cultivated in plantations in Costa Rica since 1979, when the CATIE (Tropical Agriculture and Higher Education Centre) introduced the species with a research proposal, and support the rapid growth is reported with 3.5 m average height growth and 5.4 cm in diameter on average growth per year. Usually the branches of species, so pruning is essential at an early stage.