Acacia mangium Willd.

Tree 7–30 m high, normally with a straight bole that may occupy over half of the total tree height. Bark rough, longitudinally furrowed, pale grey to dark brown. Branchlets stout, acutely angled, brown, fawn or green, glabrous, sometimes scurfy. Phyllodes obliquely narrowly elliptic to obovate, sometimes ± dimidiate with substraight lower edge and clearly convex upper edge, 11–27 (–37) cm long, 23–100 mm wide, thinly coriaceous or papery, dark green, glabrous, with (3–) 4 (–5) prominent longitudinal veins (some or all running together at base of phyllode, but not confluent with lower margin), minor veins strongly anastomosing to form a fine reticulum, with elongated vein-islands; gland 1–4.5 mm above pulvinus, an additional gland sometimes present at or near base of apical point of phyllode. Inflorescences normally comprising 1 or 2 spikes within axils of phyllodes; spikes 5–12 cm long, loosely arranged, white to cream-coloured; peduncles 6–10 mm long, minutely hairy. Flowers 5-merous; calyx 0.6–0.8 mm long, dissected to ⅕–¼ of length, pubescent; corolla 1.8–2 mm long, dissected to ½ its length, with glabrous petals; ovary densely hairy. Pods ± irregularly coiled and twisted or sometimes tightly spirally coiled, 3–6 mm wide, coriaceous to subwoody, glabrous. Seeds longitudinal, oblong-elliptic to slightly reniform, 3.5–5 mm long, 2–3 mm wide, black, minutely pitted; areole almost closed; funicle folded beneath the seed, expanded into a bright yellow or orange (rarely red) aril.

A tropical plant. A native of Queensland Australia. It occurs across SE Asia to Malaysia. It prefers medium to heavy soils. It needs a protected shady position. It is drought resistant and can tolerate waterlogging. It is probably damaged by frost. It suits high rainfall areas. It grows up to 195 m altitude. It suits hardiness zones 11-12.

Acacia mangium is a member of a group of tropical Australian species that also includes A. auriculiformis, A. × mangiiformis (see below) and A. crassicarpa. These species are now extensively used in commercial plantations, particularly in Asia, where they form a significant component of the plantation forestry industry (primarily as a source of pulpwood and solid timber). The grey-brown wood is also suitable for furniture (Beasley 2009: 31). Overviews of the extent and utilisation of the above and other Acacia species are provided by Turnbull et al. (1998), Midgley & Turnbull (2003), Midgley & Beadle (2007), Griffin et al. (2011) and Arnold (2018). See also Turnbull (1986: 160–161), Doran et al. (1997: 178–181) and Boland et al. (2006: 164–165).

It is grown from seed. The seed need to be treated to break the hard seed coat. Normally this is by putting the seeds in very hot water and letting the water cool down overnight then planting the seeds immediately. Seed are normally produced October to November.