Acacia mangium Willd is an important multipurposetree for the tropical lowlands. It is one of themost widespread of the fast-growing tree specieswhich are used in plantation forestry programmesthroughout Asia, the Pacific and the humid tropics.It has also become naturalised in Brazil, PuertoRico and many other areas. Due to its rapidgrowth and tolerance of very poor soils, Acaciamangium is playing an increasingly important rolein efforts to sustain a commercial supply of tree
products whilst reducing pressure on natural forestecosystems. Fast-growing Acacia plantations provide
industrial wood for Vietnam’s wood-processing,pulp and paper industries and woodchip exports,as well as household fuelwood supplies in ruralareas. Currently, 80% of the total requirementof Vietnam’s wood-processing industries must be
imported. Acacia plantations are nitrogen fixing andthe leaves provide an effective litter layer, makingthe species a favoured plantation genus in Vietnam.Vietnamese plantations are predominantly cultivatedon small forest farms. The Acacia species grown inVietnam originate from northern Australia, Indonesiaand Papua New Guinea. The Commonwealth
Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation(CSIRO) has collaborated with Vietnam’s ForestScience Institute for over two decades in a researchand support capacity aimed at improving thesilvicultural practices involved in the introduction
and breeding of Acacia (Kha 1996).Acacia mangium is a fast growing, nitrogen fixing,evergreen with phyllodes that serve as leaves (NFTA1987). It is a medium-sized to fairly large treemeasuring up to 35 m tall. Its bole is branchless
for up to 15 m, and can measure up to 90 cm indiameter. The bark’s surface is fissured near thebase and of a greyish brown to dark brown colour,whereas the inner bark is a paler shade of brown.Branchlets are observed to be acutely triangular, thephyllodes straight, or straight along one side andcurved along the other. These branchlets measure
up to 25.0 × 3.5–9.0 cm and are 2–5 times as longas wide, with 4 or 5 main longitudinal veins, thesecondary veins finely anatomising. Flowers possessfive merous and have a corolla 1.2–1.5 mm long.The pods of the tree are broad, linear and irregularly