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Earleaf acacia (Acacia auriculiformis)

Akasia or Papuan wattle or cormis or earpod wattle or earleaf acacia (Acacia auriculiformis) are acacia species in Fabaceae, endemic in Papua and Papua New Guinea, growing at an altitude of 0 to 400 meters above sea level at warm temperatures and able to live in rainfall is very low at 200 mm/year on soils pH 4-9.

A. auriculiformis grows well on damaged land and is able to fix nitrogen. Very tolerant of environmental stress, barren and marginal land, clay, high salinity or waterlogged. Evergreen tree despite the dry season where other plants have shed leaves. Growth of up to 30 meters and diameter of 80 cm.

Dlium Earleaf acacia (Acacia auriculiformis)

Akasia has a phylum where leaves are incomplete without leaf strands, but leaf stems will widen. Trees have phylaxis with scattered types where the phylogens bend like auricles which form the basis for identification of this species. Venation in the phyla is dominant in the longitudinal direction, 10-20 cm long and 2-6 cm wide.

Flowers are in the form of grains, short-stemmed and a grain can consist of 50-100 small yellow flowers. Grains have a length of 10-15 cm. The fruit in the pod contains 2-5 seeds, brownish black and shiny.

Growth

Cormis is a fast growing woody plant, suitable for forest restoration or planted in industrial plantations to produce large biomass in a short time. In Indonesia, wood production is 15-20 m3/ha/year for a 10-12 year rotation period.

Earleaf acacia is very useful to overcome various conditions of environmental stress, erosion and rehabilitation of marginal lands. The ability to bind nitrogen is able to fertilize the soil. The root is very strong for reclaiming hard areas that contain a lot of iron.







This tree is able to grow in areas with low to moderate rainfall (760-1670 mm/year), very acidic soil with a pH of 4 - 6.5, resistant to waterlogging in 6 months and resistant to repeated fire attacks. Papuan wattle also tolerates saline soils and is able to grow 2-3 times more than other Acacia species at the level of salt content of 1250 mol m-3.

The earpod wattle is very fast growing in the tropical and subhumid regions, the natural distribution in the dry savannah or on the edge of a moist river with a tree height of up to 30 m. In areas with sandy soil it grows to 10.6 m and diameter of 20.3 cm in 6 years with a distance of 1.8x1.8m (3000 trees/ha).

This species has been planted to increase the social and economic benefits of communities in various countries, fire support, control erosion and mixed crops in agroforestry activities, industrial waste processors and restoration of ex-mining land. The speed of growth is able to compete with weeds and is more resistant to termite attacks than Casuarina equisetifolia.

Wood character

A. auriculiformis has wood in the durability class III and strength classes between II and III, and specific gravity in the range 0.6-0.75. The chemical content of wood is α-cellulose, hemicellulose and extractive at 44.1%, 33.2%, 4.5%. At 3.5 years old, lignin showed 32.6% for sapwood and 41.4% for wood terrace.

Regeneration

Earleaf acacia is more easily regenerated using seeds. This type of flowering is very abundant and is often used for decoration along the highway. The abundance of these flowers produces very many seeds so that it is easy for breeding and regeneration to not experience many obstacles.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Mimosoideae
Genus: Acacia
Subgenus: Juliflorae
Species: Acacia auriculiformis

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