seeds of Acacia mangium, Black Wattle

Acacia mangium, also called black wattle, is tree species belonging to the family Fabaceae. Synonyms include Mangium montanum, Racosperma mangium, and Acacia glaucescens sensu. Common names for the plant include forest mangrove, hickory wattle, and mangium. The plant is native to both western Papua Guinea and Queensland in Australia. The tree can grow to a height of 30 metres and attain a trunk diameter of 60 cm. The tree trunk is straight and has a rough grey bark with fissures on its surface. This fast-growing leguminous plant produces leaves when it’s a seedling but opts for phyllodes when it matures. Flowers take the form of elongated spikes. Heartwood timber from Acacia mangium is well-known for its hardness and strength. The properties of the wood make it suitable for the making of furniture, window frames, and doors. Additional polishing makes the wood ideal for making parquet flooring tiles. The wood from the tree which cracks easily is not eligible for furniture-making, but one can still use it. The fragile wood serves as perfect raw material for pulp paper mills and in the making of biomass. Acacia mangium is leguminous and, therefore, increases the nitrogen mineral content in the soil over time. The tree also has a deep taproot with a network of veins that have an extensive reach. Such a reach ensures that plenty of minerals are spread throughout the soil. This soil-enriching quality makes Acacia mangium ideal for restoring degraded lands. Examples of such lands include waste dumps left behind after mining is complete. One can also eat the tree’s seeds which are considered highly nutritious. One should, however, be sure they are obtaining the seeds from Acacia mangium given some acacia species have poisonous seeds. The tree is capable of growing in different soil types as long as the frost is absent and the pH is close to neutral.