Acacia - (Acacia Mangium)
Acacia Mangium is used for furniture, cabinets, turning and floors. It is also suitable for particleboard, plywood, veneer, pulp, fence posts, firewood and charcoal. Non-timber uses include honey production, adhesives and as an ornamental and shade tree for roadsides or other urban forestry uses. Acacia is an important multipurpose tree for the tropic lowlands. Acacia is one of the major fast-growing species used in plantation forestry programs throughout Asia, the Pacific, and the humid tropics. Due to its rapid growth and tolerance of very poor soils, Acacia is playing an increasingly important role in efforts to sustain a commercial supply of tree products while reducing pressure on natural forest ecosystems.
Acacia Mangium is an important multipurpose tree for the tropic lowlands. Acacia Mangium is one of the major fast-growing species used in plantation forestry programs throughout Asia, the Pacific, and the humid tropics. It has naturalized in Puerto Rico, Brazil, and many other areas. Due to its rapid growth and tolerance of very poor soils, Acacia Mangium is playing an increasingly important role in efforts to sustain a commercial supply of tree products while reducing pressure on natural forest ecosystems.
Timber - Acacia Mangium wood is hard, with a basic specific gravity of 0.65 to 0.69. It produces a wood that is useful for a variety of purposes. The sapwood is cream colored and the heartwood is ash dark brown-yellowish or pale brown with a pinkish tinge and is not sharply demarcated from the sapwood.
Acacia Mangium’s grain is commonly interlocked, with medium luster; its texture is moderately fine and uniform; it is without distinctive odor or taste. The Janka side hardness test shows 1,280 lb for green material and 1,750 lb at 12 percent moisture content (windsorplywood.com). Wood drying occurs at moderate speed, and slight drying defects could take place, such as cracking at the ends or small lateral cracks. It is reported to be moderately resistant to preservative treatments.
Since Acacia Mangium can grow on marginal soils, many farmers choose to plant this species to improve soil fertility of fallowed fields or pastures. Acacia Mangium trees with diameters of 7 cm (2.76 in.) are fire resistant, so in plantations they can be used as fire breaks. This species has been grown in plantations in Costa Rica since 1979 when CATIE (Tropical Agriculture Research and Higher Education Center) introduced the species with a research proposal, and a medium to fast growth is reported with 3.5 m average height growth and 5.4 cm average diameter growth per year. Usually the species branches out, so pruning is essential at an early stage.
