Acacia Crassicarpa, Brown Salwood- 0.5 kg Seeds

Acacia crassicarpa, the brown salwood, is a fast-growing tropical tree introduced to India for short-rotation plantation forestry. It forms a straight bole with leathery, sickle-shaped phyllodes, yellow flower spikes and thick, woody pods, and tolerates a wide range of difficult sites including acidic and seasonally waterlogged soils.

It is grown chiefly for pulpwood, fuelwood and reconstituted-board timber, and as a quick nitrogen-fixing pioneer for rehabilitating degraded and infertile lands. Its rapid early growth and adaptability have made it a favourite in industrial agroforestry and farm-forestry woodlots in the warmer, higher-rainfall parts of the country.

• Family: Fabaceae (Leguminosae)
• Native region: northern Australia, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia
• Mature height: 20-30 m
• Growth rate: very fast

The hard-coated seeds germinate readily after a hot-water treatment: pour near-boiling water over them and allow to soak as it cools for 12-24 hours. Sow the swollen seeds about 1 cm deep in a light nursery medium; germination follows in roughly 7-14 days. Raise the seedlings in poly bags and plant out with the onset of the monsoon.