Leucaena lanceolata

Cultivation Details

Leucaena lanceolala is a truly tropical species and although it is distributed as far north as Chihuahua, well north of the Tropic of Cancer, it does not tolerate frost. Throughout its wide distribution, rainfall is highly seasonal, usually between 900 - 1,500mm, with a 3 - 6 month dry season^[1]. Leucaena species generally require a sunny position. They are often found in the wild on poor, shallow and dry soils, usually overlying a calcareous rock. Most of them do not thrive on acid soils. Most species experience a long dry season and are more or less drought tolerant. Leucaena lanceolata as a whole, and var lanceolata in particular, evidently thrives on disturbance and can be very common and weedy along roadsides in parts of its native range or in coastal vegetation and on dunes. Given these tendencies it poses significant risks of becoming a ruderal weed of open disturbed habitats where introduced^[1]. The unripe seedpods are harvested by climbing the trees and lopping the terminal branches or groups of pods, often crudely, with machetes, small knives or cutting poles. Annual pollarding in this way apparently causes only limited damage to the trees which resprout and fruit annually^[1]. The 40cm long pods of var. sousae from parts of coastal Oaxaca are extremely large, exceeding the dimensions of any other Leucaena species^[1]. Provenances from the southern part of the range around the isthmus of Tehuantepec, in Oaxaca and Chiapas, are generally faster growing and fonn larger trees, up to 20 metres tall^[1]. Plants are moderately susceptible to psyllid damage^[1]. This species has a symbiotic relationship with certain soil bacteria, these bacteria form nodules on the roots and fix atmospheric nitrogen. Some of this nitrogen is utilized by the growing plant but some can also be used by other plants growing nearby^[2].