TopTropicals Plant Catalog

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Acacia mangium grows up to 30m tall, often with a straight trunk.

Phyllodes lanceolate or ovate, conspicuously veined, light or dark green; flower-heads rod-like, white, sparse, on hairy peduncles about 1 cm long; pods long, slender, coiled or twisted and contorted. Its uses include environmental management and wood.

The fine hard wood of this wattle makes strong spear handles, boomerangs, clubs, and shields in the Victorian age.

People soaked the bark in water to bathe painful joints. The inner bark was used to make string.

A small fast-growing tree with that has soft green leaves. The branches have a drooping habit. The flower heads are very conspicuous, bright yellow, and arranged at intervals on the long stem. Cultivation: Generally adaptable, responds to sunny, reasonably well drained positions in most soils. Useful as a tall background plant. Very fast growing, hardy, and resistant to salt spray.

The name comes from the shape of the thorns which do indeed resemble the horns of a bull. The tree has a strong, symbiotic relationship with a species of ant, Pseudomyrmex sphaerocephala for which it is the obligate habitat. The ants act as caretakers for the tree, and clear the ground and keep it free of any other plants and even prune surrounding branches of other trees that threaten to outshade the acacia. Without the protection of the ant colony, the acacia tree would fall vulnerable to chewing insects such as beetles or caterpillars, and surrounding trees and shrubs would quickly outcompete the acacia without the maintnance work of the ants to keep the tree safe.

Close related species - Acacia collinsii.

The fever tree is an attractive, semi-deciduous to deciduous tree approximately 15 to 25 meters tall and has an open, rounded to spreading or flattish crown which is sparsely foliated. The characteristic, almost luminous, lime green to greenish-yellow bark is smooth, slightly flaking, and coated in a yellow powdery substance. If the powdery surface is rubbed away with the finger it will reveal a green bark beneath. It has a slender to spreading, sparse, roundish crown of feathery foliage. The thorns are long, straight and paired.

This species occurs in groups in low-lying swampy areas. Because its range coincides with regions where malaria is prevalent, it is called "Fever Tree."