3916

5(2): Timber trees; Minor commercial timbers

Acacia crassicarpa 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: 379 (1842).

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

Northern wattle, red wattle (En).

South-western Papua New Guinea and Australia (coastal Queensland); also planted in plantations in Kalimantan.

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

A medium-sized tree up to 25(—33) m tall, bole branchless for up to 13(—18) m, up to 50 cm in diameter, fluted or spurred at base, bark surface rough, deeply fissured, grey to grey-brown, inner bark reddish, branchlets angular; phyllodes falcate, 11—20 cm 1—4.5 cm, 2.5—12 times as long as wide, with 3—5 yellowish main longitudinal veins and a yellowish margin, secondary veins not anastomosing; flowers in spikes, 5-merous, corolla 1.3—1.6 mm long; pod flat, up to 5 cm 2—3.5 cm, woody, with transverse but hardly reticulate venation. Acacia crassicarpa has often been confused with Acacia aulacocarpa. It is found in savanna sometimes with Banksia spp., in woodland or burnt-over open forest, on flats dominated by Melaleuca and Tristania spp., at 10—30 m altitude in Papua New Guinea, up to 700 m in Australia. The density of the wood is 670—710 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.
[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 crassicarpa 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