Leucaena leucocephala (leucaena)
Identity
- Preferred Scientific Name
- Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit
- Preferred Common Name
- leucaena
- Other Scientific Names
- Acacia frondosa Willd.
- Acacia glauca (L.) Willd.
- Acacia leucocephala (Lam.) Link
- Acacia leucophala Link
- Leucaena glabra Benth.
- Leucaena glauca Benth.
- Leucaena latisiliqua (L.) Gillis
- Mimosa leucocephala Lam
- Mimosa leucophala Lam.
- International Common Names
- Englishcoffee bushfalse koahedge acaciahorse tamarindipel-ipelipil-ipiljumbie-beanjumpy-beanlead treeleadtreevi-viwhite popinacwild tamarind
- Spanishacacia bella rosaacacia pálidacampechechambaguajehediondillahuaxinpeladeratamarindo silvestreuaximzarcilla
- Frenchcassifaux acaciafaux mimosagraines de lingrains de lin paysl'acacieleucaenemimosatamarin batardtamarin cheval
- Chineseyin he huan
- Local Common Names
- Australiacow tamarindjumbie beansneaky treesneakytreewhite leadtree
- Bahamasjumby bean
- Belizewild tamarind
- Brazilfaux-acacia
- Cambodiakanthum theetkratin
- Cook Islandsmarainumara'inunito
- Cubaaroma blancaaroma bobaaroma mansasoplillo
- Dominican Republicgranadillogranalinogrenadillo bobolinolino criollo
- El Salvadorbarba de leon
- Ethiopialukina
- Fijibalorivaivaivaivai dinavaivai ni vavalangi
- French Polynesia/Marquesasatiku
- Guamtangan-tangan
- Guatemalachalipguash criollo
- Haitidelenlisinatchia-tchia marron
- Hondurasfrijol guaje
- Indiakubabullasobayalnattucvundalsubaboolsubabultagarivilayati baral
- Indonesialamtorolamtoro gungpetai cina
- Indonesia/Javaklandingan
- Kenyalusiamlusina
- Kiribatite kaitetua
- Laoskathinkh'oonzkoong khaaw
- Lesser Antillesmacatamacta-boursemonvaltamarin bâtardwild mimosawild tamarin
- Malaysialamtoropetai belalang
- Marshall Islandstangan tankantangan-tangan
- Mexicocalguajedormilonefeguacheguache tierra calienteguajeguaje blancoguaje verdeguasguashguash de castillaguasheguaslimguaxinhuaxehuaximliliaktumbapelouaxiuaxinwaximxaxim
- Micronesia, Federated states oftangantangan
- Naurubin
- Niuepepetavahi kaku
- Palautelengtungdtelentund
- Papua New Guineakunai
- Peruarabisca
- Philippineselenagiant ipil-ipilkariskispalo marina
- Puerto Ricoacacia palidatantan
- Rwandaresene
- Samoafua pepefuapepelopa Samoalusina
- South Africareuse wattlereusewattle
- Thailandkra thinto-bao
- Tongasiale mohemohe
- USAwhite lead tree
- USA/Hawaiiekoafalse koahaole koakoa-haolelilikoa
- Vietnambo chetkeo dauschemu
- EPPO code
- LUAGL (Leucaena leucocephala)
- Subspecies
- Leucaena leucocephala subsp. glabrata
- Subspecies
- Leucaena leucocephala subsp. ixtahuacana
- Subspecies
- Leucaena leucocephala subsp. leucocephala
- Synonymized subspecies
- Leucaena glabrata
Pictures
Habit
Leucaena leucocephala (leucaena); flowers and foliage. Poon Saan, Christmas Island, Australia, April 2011.
©John Tann/via flickr - CC BY 2.0
Habit
Leucaena leucocephala (leucaena); flowers, foliage and some green seed-pods. India. September 2007.
©Dinesh Valke/via flickr - CC BY-SA 2.0
Leaflet arrangement
Leucaena leucocephala (leucaena); leaflet arrangement. Young bipinnate leaf detail. Note the insertion of leaflets on the underside of a secondary rachis, the displacement of the main nerve upwards is clearly visible. Águilas, Murcia, Spain. Agust 2013.
©Philmarin/via wikipedia - CC BY-SA 3.0
Young leaf
Leucaena leucocephala (leucaena); young, bipinnate, leaf with glands visible (one is arrowed) in the branches of the secondary rachis. Águilas, Murcia, Spain. August 2013.
©Philmarin/via wikipedia - CC BY-SA 3.0
Rhachis fork
Leucaena leucocephala (leucaena); rhachis fork, with gland. Eagles, Murcia, Spain. September 2013.
©Philmarin/via wikipedia - CC BY-SA 3.0
Seedpods
Leucaena leucocephala (leucaena); green seedpods. Sand Island, Midway Atoll, Hawaii, USA. June 2017.
©Forest & Kim Starr/via flickr - CC BY 4.0
Seeds
Leucaena leucocephala (leucaena); seeds. Eagles, Murcia, Spain. August 2011.
©Philmarin/via wikipedia - CC BY-SA 3.0
Fenceline tree
Leucaena leucocephala (leucaena); subsp. glabrata, habit as a fenceline tree, to 10m tall. Comayagua, Honduras.
©Colin Hughes, Dept. Plant Sciences, Univ. Oxford
Foliage
Leucaena leucocephala (leucaena); foliage, flowers and seed pods.
©N.M. Pasiecznik
Seed pods
Leucaena leucocephala (leucaena); subsp. glabrata, cluster of unripe pods on a single flower head. Heavy pod and seed set is often attributed to self-fertility.
©Colin Hughes/Dept. Plant Sciences, University of Oxford
Terrace boundary
Leucaena leucocephala (leucaena); subsp. glabrata, cultivated on terrace boundaries. Choluteca, Honduras.
©Colin Hughes/Dept. Plant Sciences, University of Oxford
Intercropping
Leucaena leucocephala (leucaena); subsp. glabrata, usd in alley farming with winter wheat intercrop. Jhansi, India.
©Colin Hughes/Dept. Plant Sciences, University of Oxford
Morphology
Leucaena leucocephala (leucaena); morphology.
©Wilhelm Valder
Flowers
Leucaena leucocephala (leucaena); subsp. glabrata, open flower head and unopened flower buds.
©Colin Hughes/Dept. Plant Sciences, University of Oxford
Distribution
Prevention and Control
Cultural control
Hughes and Harris (1994) reports an example in Java, Indonesia where a sterile hybrid of L. leucocephala was planted instead of reproductive individuals, after problems of weediness were encountered when the species was planted as a plantation shade tree elsewhere in the region.
Being a highly palatable species, grazing could be used as a means of control and grazing by goats was found to control L. leucocephala in Hawaii (PIER, 2007). Ruiz et al. (2018) studied the effect of different management systems to prevent L. leucocephala from becoming an invasive plant, over years. Two silvopastoral systems were assessed, comprising of L. leucocephala cv. Peru and Brachiaria brizantha cv. Marandú, either grazed or ungrazed concluding that grazing is a functional and feasible option to apply so that this species does not become invasive.
Where Leucaena is a weed in forest nurseries in India, solarization was found to be 100% effective in killing all plants and seeds (Verma et al., 2005), whereby a plastic sheet was used to cover moist soil for 1 month, increasing soil temperatures by 10-12°C.
Best practice guidelines are being developed and implemented in parts of Australia where the species is cultivated as a fodder, with the aim of reducing the risks of escape, spread and invasion of neighbouring habitats. If found to be effective, such a model could be attempted in other countries where it is cultivated.
A study on Nakoudo-jima (Bonin islands), Japan (Osawa et al., 2016) following the elimination of feral goats found that bare ground areas decreased and forest cover increased, particularly in areas dominated by L. leucocephala and grassland cover also increased but this may have occurred prior to L. leucocephala expansion. Results also suggested that L. leucocephala-dominated forest might invade grassland areas and that grasslands may have mediated the expansion of L. leucocephala after feral goat elimination. Future management of L. leucocephala should therefore target high-risk expansion zones adjacent to grasslands (Osawa et al., 2016).
Mechanical control
Like most agroforestry trees, it will resprout vigorously after cutting and some or all of the root mass must thus be removed. Weber (2003) reports that pulling or digging is appropriate for young plants, whereas cutting followed by herbicide is used for older plants and this combination has been used effectively in Hawaii (PIER, 2007). In Taiwan, Peng et al. (2019) found that cutting down adult trees and cutting all new sprouts once a month for year had no impact on regrowth or stump survival, unless stumps were covered with a thick black plastic sheet. Covering with shading nets that reduced relative light intensity to 5%, significantly reduced the number of new sprouts by 63% and their length by 30% and new L. leucocephala seedlings suffered 100% mortality. Girdling of adult trees caused the upper trunk and branches above the girdled area to wither, but sprouts still grew from the lower edge of the girdled area.
Chemical Control
Due to the variable regulations around (de-)registration of pesticides, we are for the moment not including any specific chemical control recommendations. For further information, we recommend you visit the following resources:
•
EU pesticides database (http://ec.europa.eu/food/plant/pesticides/eu-pesticides-database/)
•
PAN pesticide database (www.pesticideinfo.org)
•
Your national pesticide guide
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
Copyright © CABI. CABI is a registered EU trademark. This article is published under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
History
Published online: 4 October 2022
Language
English
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