From Common Forest Trees of Hawaii

Albizia
Falcataria falcata
Pea family (Fabaceae)

Post-Cook introduction

This is a large, introduced tree with a tall trunk and thin very broad spreading of large twice leaves. To 100 ft (30 ) tall, with a trunk diameter to 4 ft (1.2 ), not enlarged at the base. Bark is light gray, smooth with corky warts, showy. Inner bark is pink, astringent and slightly bitter. Twigs stout, light gray. Mimosa subfamily (Mimosoideae).


©2013 葉子 leaf0605
Leaves 9–12 inches (23–30 ) long, with tiny pressed hairs and slender angled axis bearing above base. Side axes 10–12 pairs 2–4 inches (5–10 ) long. paired, 30–40 on an axis, small, stalkless, oblong, 1⁄4–1⁄2 inch (6–13 ) long and 1⁄8–3⁄16 inch (3–5 ) wide, short-pointed at unequal-sided and blunt at base, not thin, above dull green, beneath paler.

Flower clusters () are large, lateral, branched, 8–10 inches (20–25 ) long. Flowers many, clustered, stalkless, 1⁄2 inch (13 ) long, whitish, composed of light green bell-shaped 5- 1⁄8 inch (3 ) long, greenish white 1⁄4 inch (6 ) long with five narrow pointed very many theadlike spreading more than 1⁄2 inch (13 ) long, and slender with narrow and long threadlike

(pods) narrow, flat, 4–5 inches (10–13 ) long, 3⁄4 inch (2 ) wide, green, turning brown, thin-walled, splitting open. Seeds 15–20, beanlike, 1⁄4 inch (6 ) long, oblong, flattened, dull dark brown.

The heartwood is pale yellow brown with a pink tinge. Sapwood is white. Wood lightweight ( gr. 0.33), coarse-textured, and essentially unfigured. It has strength equivalent to ponderosa pine and machines well except for occasional fuzzy grain caused by tension wood. The lumber seasons well but is subject to staining unless dried rapidly. Dust from machining operations is very irritating to mucous membranes, both when the wood is green and when it is dry. The wood is non-resistant to decay or termites.

Over 1 million board feet of timber have been cut on the island of Hawaii. Most of it was made into corestock veneer, for which it is highly suited. It has also been used in lumber form for lightweight pallets, boxes, and shelving. It is also suitable for internal furniture parts. Tests in the Philippines indicate it is a good pulpwood.

Plants become established naturally in abandoned sugarcane fields as well as in the forest wherever there are seed trees. The tree reproduces prolifically in areas below 1000 ft (305 ) elevation with 80–150 inches (2032–3810 ) rainfall. The lightweight pods are blown by winds, and seeds are abundant. This species has very rapid growth, as much as 15 ft (4.5 ) a year, but has a short life. It does well on poor, heavy clay, moist soils. The tree is a nitrogen fixer. Fallen leaves improve the soil.

Introduced to Hawaii in 1917 by Joseph Rock as an ornamental and for reforestation, it is now naturalized. The largest stand is at the Moloaa Forest Reserve on Kauai where there are more than 5 million board feet of sawtimber. It may be seen near Lyon Arboretum in Manoa Valley and at Foster Botanic Garden on Oahu, at the Lava Tree State Park in Puna, Hawaii, and along roadsides and in gardens through the State. A stand in Palolo Valley, Oahu, had trees 27 inches (69 ) in diameter at only 13 years of age.

Champion
Height 110 ft (33.6 ), c.b.h. 29.8 ft (9.1 ), spread 167 ft (50.9 ). Hilo, Hawaii (1968).

Range
Native to Molucca

Other common name
sau

Botanical
Albizia moluccana Miq., A. (L.) Backer (in part), Paraserianthes falcataria (L.) Nielson, Albizia falcataria (L.) Fosberg

sp. -- The abbreviation for "species". The plural is "spp". When used it sometimes means that the exact species is unknown. For example, "Aster sp" would mean some species within the Aster genus but the writer may not know exactly which species.

cm -- A centimeter which is about 0.4 inches.

An annual plant is a plant that completes its life cycle, from germination to the production of seed, within one year, and then dies.

m -- A meter is about 10% larger than a yard.

Glands are plant structures that secrete liquids, salts or other substances. Glands often appear as hairs with a drop of liquid at the end.

style -- This is a long and thread-like structure that connects the stigma with the ovary. A flower may have a single style, or several of them.

The apex is the tip or the furthest point from the attachment.

alternate -- leaves alternate along the main stem and are attached singly.

Like the teeth on a saw, leaves and other surfaces can have toothed edges.

A panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. The bottom flowers in a panicle open first.

A pistil is the female structure of many flowers. It contains one or more carpels. Each carpel contins an ovary, style and stigma. The stigma receives the pollen which grows thru the style to reach the ovary.

Bipinnate -- A compound leaf with two rows of leaflets where those leaflets are again compound with two rows of leafelets.

stamen -- the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower; The stamen consists of an anther supported by a filament.

lobe -- Rounded parts of a leaf (or other organ). Lobes bulge out about 1/4 of the leaf diameter.

deciduous plants are those that lose all of their leaves for part of the year.

fruit -- any seed-bearing structure in flowering plants. It is formed from the ovary after flowering.

A leaf is compound when multiple leaflets are on the same stem.

canopy -- The foliage of a tree; the crown. Also the upper layer of a forest.

leaflets -- Each little leaf-like thing in a compound leaf is a leaflet.

falcate -- Sickle-shaped

synonym -- In botany a synonym is a species name that at one time was thought to be the correct name for a plant but was later found to be incorrect and has been replaced by a new name.

mm -- millimeter. About 1/25th of an inch.

corolla -- The name for all the petals of a flower taken together.

calyx -- the sepals of a flower, typically forming a whorl that encloses the petals and forms a protective layer around a flower in bud.

An ovary is a part of the female reproductive organ of the flower. Above the ovary is the style and the stigma, which is where the pollen lands and germinates to grow down through the style to the ovary.