Difference between revisions of "Acacia acuminata"

Revision as of 15:07, 9 February 2014

	Acacia acuminata
	Up to 1.8% alkaloids, mainly consisting of dimethyltryptamine in bark (Jeremy EGA conference, Australia 2009, used successfully in S.Australia since c.2008); up to 1.2% DMT phyllode (leaf) (DMT-Nexus); tryptamine in leaf (White et al 1951)

General Plant Info

Acacia acuminata, commonly known as the raspberry jam tree, fine leaf jam, "raspberry jam" or jam tree, is a shrub in the family Fabaceae.

The species name acuminata comes from the Latin acuminatus, which means pointed or elongated. This refers to the long point at the end of each leaf. The common name "raspberry jam" refers to the strong odour of freshly cut wood, which resembles raspberry jam.

As with most Acacia species, it has phyllodes rather than true leaves. These are plurinerved and bright green, around ten centimetres long and about two millimetres wide, and finish in a long point. The lemon yellow flowers are held in tight cylindrical clusters about two centimetres long. The pods are light brown and flattened, about ten centimetres long and five millimetres wide.

Acacia acuminate is comprises of 5 main variants: [Maslin et al. (1999)]

• Subsp. acuminata (typical variant / broad phyllode) / Subsp. acuminata (narrow phyllode) / Subsp. acuminata (small seed variant)

• Subsp. burkitti (variant 1) / Subsp. burkitti (variant 2)

Geographic distribution

Endemic to Western Australia, it occurs throughout the south west of the State. It is common in the Wheatbelt, and also extends into the semi-arid interior.

Subsp. acuminata occurs in the South west of Western Australia extending south from near the Murchison River to Borden and Ravensthorpe and east to Yalgoo, Kalgoorlie and Balladonia.

Subsp. burkittii extends east from the distribution of subsp. acuminata, through inland South Australia to the western plains of New South Wales.

Identification

A. Acuminata (typical variant) grows as a tall shrub or tree. In ideal conditions it may grow to a height of 10 m, but in most distributions is 3-7 m tall. Plants in open sites away from competition tend to have wider and more rounded crowns (to about 8 m across) than those from within closely spaced (about 1–3 m apart), often monospecific, populations; branchlets ascending to erect or rarely pendulous to sub-pendulous; few-branched at ground level (2–6 main stems) or with a single, straight to almost straight bole 0.3–1.5 (–2) m long and 10–30 (–45) cm dbh; crowns dense, rounded to sub-rounded and up to 7–8 (–10) m across.

A. acuminata (narrow phyllode) grows as a small rounded tree 2-5 m tall and 1.5-4 m wide. In ideal conditions it may grow to a height of 6-7 m and spreading about 7 m wide. Plants in open sites away from competition tend to have more rounded crowns than those in dense populations; with 2–6 main stems arising from ground level, sometimes with a single bole up to 0.5 (–1) m long, the main stems rather straight, slender and ascending to erect; crowns dense to mid-dense, rounded to sub-rounded, spreading and occupying 20–40% of the total plant height.

A. acuminata burkitti (variant 2) grows as a small rounded tree 3-6 m tall, dividing at or up to 1 m above ground level into a few main stems.

Bark (all variants) is longitudinally fissured on main stems (especially near base), smooth on upper branches, and grey.

The unusual sap colouring is caused by carotene dissolved in oil held in wood pores.

Alkaloid content

Jeremy (EGA 2009) reported DMT primary alkaloid. Recent net lore indicates 0.6-1.2% alkaloid dimethyltryptamine in leaves, 0.6-1.5% bark, with some ß-carbolines.

Broad-leafed form gave 0.72% total alkaloid and narrow-leafed form gave 1.5% total alkaloid. Both collected Oct. White 1957 ^[1]

Other uses

The wood is hard and durable, with an attractive, reddish, close grain. It has been used extensively for fence posts,^[2] for ornamental articles, and for high-load applications such as sheave blocks. The wood's "air dried" density is 1040 kg/m³.^[3] It is also being used as a companion/host tree with sandalwood (Santalum spicatum) plantations in the Wheatbelt region ^[4]

Timber is widely used in wood turning due to the beautiful grain and aroma of raspberry jam for some time after cutting.

Extraction

Cultivation

Acacia acuminata is easily grown in most temperate areas. Has high frost and drought tolerance with medium salt tolerance. It is suited to a range of soils including limestone provided it is reasonably free draining.

Flowers best in full sun. It requires at least 250mm/year (9.8in./year) average rainfall.^[5]

Suppliers

Links

• Template:APNI
• Template:Flora of Australia Online
• Template:FloraBase
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• USDA GRIN

References

A Biology of Acacias . T R New
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