Common name: White albizia

White albizia is a fast-growing timber and agroforestry tree native to Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Its natural range extends from Indonesia through Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, and the Solomon Islands to the southwest Pacific.

It may attain a height of up to 35 m (115 ft) in its natural habitat and develops a slender trunk, up to 1.3 m (50 in) in diameter, supporting a wide-spreading, umbrella-shaped crown. The bark is light-grey to grey-white and smooth.

Leaves are large, up to 30 cm (1 ft) long and twice-feathered, consisting of numerous tiny, dull green, oblong leaflets arranged in pairs along each leaf branch. In the dry season, they detach and fall to the ground to conserve water, leaving the branches bare until the rainy season, when the new leaves emerge.

Flowers are small, creamy-white and bloom in clusters just after the new leaves emerge in the rainy season. Fertilised flowers develop into thin, flat seedpods that turn from green to brown and become dry when mature,  about two months after flowering has ended.

Use

The wood is lightweight, averaging around 300 to 400 kilograms per cubic meter (19 to 25 lbs per cubic ft). It has a low natural resistance to decay and termites, making it a non-durable softwood.

Well-formed logs are sawn into planks used mostly for making lightweight furniture, cabinets, packing boxes and crates. The roundwood is sliced for decorative veneer, made into matchsticks, composite wood products such as particleboard and fibreboard, and is a major source wood for conversion into paper-pulp. White albizia is also used for firewood in its native range. Although not ideally suited for this purpose because of its low density, it is in plentiful supply because of the tree's extremely fast growth rate and coppicing ability. It is also used for artisan carvings, particularly on the island of Bali, in Indonesia.

It is one of the fastest-growing trees in the world, with growth rates of 5 to 6 m (16 to 20 ft) per year being recorded. Also, it has nitrogen-fixing abilities and a thin, lightly shading canopy. This makes it suitable for environmental services such as crop shading, land rehabilitation, and land reclamation.

Climate

Grows naturally in humid to very humid tropical lowland climates, generally frost-free areas with annual lows of 18 to 25°C, annual highs of 27 to 36°C, annual rainfall of 1500 to 5500 mm and a dry season of 4 months or less.

White Albizia may not thrive in areas where the average low of the coldest month is below 15°C (60°F).

Growing

New plants are usually grown from seed pre-treated before sowing by immersing them in boiled water then left to cool. Performs best on moist, free-draining, fertile clay and loam soils of a moderately acid to neutral nature, generally with a pH of 5.5 to 7.0, and on sites with full sun exposure.

Problem features

White albizia regenerates freely from its seed, held in dry, lightweight seedpods that get carried on the wind, usually over short distances not far from the parent tree. The ability to disperse its seed and its fast growth can cause dense stands to form over time and has occurred in areas where it was introduced and is now a serious weed. It is assessed as a high weed risk species for Hawaii by the Hawaii Pacific Weed Risk Assessment (HPWRA) project.

The wood is lightweight and brittle, making it intolerant of strong winds. Limb breakage and tree uprooting are common in high wind events, such as those associated with hurricanes, typhoons and other major tropical storms. 

Books

• Allen, O. N. & Allen, E. K. 1981, The Leguminosae : a source book of characteristics, uses, and nodulation, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, Wisconsin

• Bonner, F. T & Karrfalt, R. P. 2008, The woody plant seed manual, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Washington D.C.

• Chudnoff, M. 1984, Tropical timbers of the world, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Washington, D.C.

• Duke, J. A. 1983, Handbook of energy crops (unpublished), Center for New Crops & Plants Products, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana

• Elevitch, C. R & Wilkinson, K. M. 2000, Agroforestry Guides for Pacific Islands, 1st ed., Permanent Agriculture Resources, Holualoa, Hawaii

• Francis, J. K. et al. 2000, Silvics of Native and Exotic Trees of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean Islands, Technical Report IITF-15, USDA Forest Service, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico

• Jensen, M. 1999, Trees commonly cultivated in Southeast Asia : an illustrated field guide, 2nd ed., Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (RAP), Bangkok

• Kraemer, J. H. 1945, Native woods for construction purposes in the South China Sea region, Bureau of Yards and Docks, United States Navy Department, Washington D.C.

• Krishen, P. 2006, Trees of Delhi : a field guide, Dorling Kindersley Publishers, Delhi

• Little, E. L. & Skolmen, R. G. 1989, Common forest trees of Hawaii (native and introduced), Agricultuural Handbook No. 679, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.

• Lopez, C. & Shanley, P., 2004. Riches of the forest: food, spices, crafts and resins of Asia, Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Bogor, Indonesia

• Luna, R. K 1996, Plantation trees, International Book Distributors, Dehradun, Uttarakhand

• Macmillan, H. F. 1943, Tropical planting and gardening : with special reference to Ceylon, 5th ed, Macmillan Publishing, London

• Nair, P. K. R. 1993, An introduction to agroforestry, International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF), Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht

• National Research Council (Board on Science and Technology for International Development) 1979, Tropical legumes : resources for the future, The National Academies Press, Washington D. C.

• National Research Council (Board on Science and Technology for International Development) 1983, Firewood crops : shrub and tree species for energy production (Volume 2), The National Academies Press, Washington D. C.

• Randall, R. P. 2007, The introduced flora of Australia and its weed status, Cooperative Research Centre for Australian Weed Management, Glen Osmond, South Australia

• Scheffer, T. C & Morrell, J. J. 1998, Natural durability of wood : a worldwide checklist of species, Forest Research Laboratory, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon

• Webb, D. B. 1984, A Guide to species selection for tropical and sub-tropical plantations, 2nd ed., Unit of Tropical Silviculture, Commonwealth Forestry Institute, University of Oxford, Oxfordshire

Articles, Journals, Reports and Working Papers

• Skolmen R.G. 2000, Some woods of Hawaii: properties and uses of 16 commercial species, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, (Resource Managment; RM-7), 33 p.