3913

5(2): Timber trees; Minor commercial timbers

Acacia aulacocarpa A. Cunn. ex Benth.

This article should be read together with the article on the genus: Acacia in the Handbook volume indicated above in this database.

Lond. Journ. Bot. 1: 378 (1842).

Racosperma aulacocarpum (A. Cunn. ex Benth.) Pedley (1987).

Brown salwood, brown wattle, New Guinea wattle (En).

Eastern and northern Australia and southern New Guinea.

The wood is used as wattle, e.g. for heavy construction, furniture, flooring, cabinet-making, boat-building and panelling. It has long been used for native building posts and has a reputation of being durable. It is also used for fuel.

A medium-sized to fairly large tree up to 35(—39) m tall, bole branchless for up to 21 m, up to 90 cm in diameter, bark surface deeply vertically fissured and peeling in long strips, dark grey or brown, inner bark red to pink, branchlets angular; phyllodes straight or falcate, 7—15 cm 0.6—3.5 cm, 4—12 times longer than wide, with 3—7 major longitudinal veins, secondary veins not anastomosing; flowers in spikes, 5-merous, corolla 1.5—1.9 mm long; pod straight but often twisted when old, up to 8 cm (1—)2 cm, coriaceous to subwoody, with anastomosing venation. Acacia aulacocarpa has often been confused with Acacia crassicarpa. It is found in savanna, scrub forest, monsoon forest, light rain forest or secondary forest in periodically flooded areas, on stony or sandy soils, at 15—60 m altitude in New Guinea, but up to 1000 m in Australia. The density of the wood is 645—720 kg/m³ at 12% moisture content. See also the table on wood properties.

[145]Eddowes, P.J., 1977. Commercial timbers of Papua New Guinea, their properties and uses. Forest Products Research Centre, Department of Primary Industry, Port Moresby. xiv + 195 pp.
[162]Flora Malesiana (various editors), 1950–. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Boston, London.
[289]Keating, W.G. & Bolza, 1982. Characteristics, properties and uses of timbers. Vol. 1. South-East Asia, northern Australia and the Pacific. Inkata Press Proprietary Ltd., Melbourne, Sydney & London. 362 pp.
[297]Kingston, R.S.T. & Risdon, C.J.E., 1961. Shrinkage and density of Australian and other South-West Pacific woods. Technological Paper No 13. Division of Forest Products, CSIRO, Melbourne. 65 pp.
[509]Pryor, L.D., 1989. Vegetative propagation of Casuarina and Acacia: potential for success. In: Boland, D.J. (Editor): Trees for the tropics. Growing Australian multipurpose trees and shrubs in developing countries. Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, Canberra. pp. 155—157.
[649]Turnbull, J.W., 1986. Multipurpose Australian trees and shrubs. Lesser known species for fuelwood and agroforestry. Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, Canberra. pp. 155—157.rnational Agricultural Research, Canberra. 316 pp.
[650]Turnbull, J.W. (Editor), 1987. Australian acacias in developing countries. Proceedings of an international workshop held at the Forestry Training Centre, Gympie, Queensland, Australia, 4–7 August 1986. ACIAR Proceedings No 16. 196 pp.
[672]Verdcourt, B., 1979. A manual of New Guinea legumes. Botany Bulletin No 11. Office of Forests, Division of Botany, Lae. 645 pp.

F. Arentz

Arentz, F., 1995. Acacia aulacocarpa A. Cunn. ex Benth.. In: Lemmens, R.H.M.J., Soerianegara, I. and Wong, W.C. (Editors): Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 5(2): Timber trees; Minor commercial timbers. PROSEA Foundation, Bogor, Indonesia. Database record: prota4u.org/prosea