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White leadtree (Leucaena leucocephala)

Lamtoro or white leadtree (Leucaena leucocephala) is a plant species in Fabaceae, a shrub with compound leaves, compound flowers, pods, adaptable, quickly wild in various tropical areas and is often used in greening land or preventing erosion and fodder.

L. leucocephala has a height of up to 20 m, although most are only about 2-10 m. Low and numerous branches with brown or grayish bark, rash and lenticels. The twigs are round thoracic with tight hair ends.

Dlium White leadtree (Leucaena leucocephala)


The leaves are compound and pinnate with 3-10 pairs and mostly with glands on the shaft just before the base of the lower fin. Leaves are small and triangular in shape. The leaves on each fin are 5-20 pairs, opposite, 6-16 mm long, 1-2 mm wide, tapered tip and oblique base, unequal, smooth hairy surface and frayed edges.

A compound flower in the form of a long-stemmed hump that collects in panicles and contains 2-6 nodes. Each head is composed of 100-180 buds that form a white or yellowish ball, 12-21 mm in diameter and 2-5 cm long. Flowers are small, bell-shaped tube petals, short-toothed and 3 mm. The crown is in the shape of a solet and 5 mm. Benangsari is 10 strands and 1 cm.

The pods are straight ribbons, flat and thin, 14-26 cm long, 2 cm wide, gaps between the seeds, green and finally greenish brown or dark brown when ripe and dry to open themselves. The fruit contains 15-30 seeds, transverse, oval-shaped breech or round egg inverted, green in color and shiny dark brown ends, 6-10 mm long and 3-4.5 mm wide.

White leadtree grows in warm tropical climates for temperatures of 25-30C, elevation of 0-1000 m, dry resistance, 650-3,000 mm of rainfall per year. Used as a shade tree, preventing erosion, a source of firewood and animal feed.





Leaves are used as green manure by immersing the leaves as fertilizer in the soil. The roots have nitrogen-fixing nodules as an organic source. It is often planted as a live fence, firebreak, windbreak, green belt, live vine for high-value entwining crops including pepper, vanilla, passion fruit and gadung. As a shelter in coffee and cocoa plantations.

Wood has a calorific value of 19,250 kJ/kg, burns slowly and produces less smoke and ash. Very good quality wood charcoal with a calorific value of 48,400 kJ/kg. Wet wood has a moisture content of 30-50%, but it dries well and is easy to work with.

Terrace wood is reddish brown or golden in color, medium texture, hard and strong as wood for utensils, furniture, pillars and floor coverings, but is easy to lose to termites and quickly rot outdoors. Usually used for paper making. Wood produces 50-52% pulp with low lignin content and 1.1-1.3 mm fiber.

Leaves and young twigs for animal feed and a good source of protein. The digestibility rate is 60-70% in ruminants or the highest among legumes and other tropical forage. The high content of mimosin can cause hair loss in non-ruminants.

Flowering all year round provides good food for honey bees. Leaves, flower buds and young pods are common for raw or pre-cooked dishes. Young fruit and seeds are used as vegetables. Old beans are roasted as a substitute for coffee with a fragrant aroma that is stronger than coffee.

Seeds are also processed to replace soybeans with almost the same nutrition. Carbohydrates in reducing sugars are 164.29 mg/g and in starches 179.50 mg/g. Protein amounted to 208.56 mg/g and fat 80.86 mg/g.

Plants produce tanning and coloring agents for red, brown and black from the bark, leaves and pods. The stem produces a kind of resin or gum which has good quality.

Ingredients include mimosin, leukanin, leucanol, protein, alkaloids, saponins, flavonoids, tannins, protein, fat, calcium, phosphorus, iron, vitamins (A, B1, and C). Widely applied as a diuretic and intestinal worm killer. The seeds are dried and made into a powder to be boiled as a diabetes medicine. The young leaves are pounded and attached to the wound.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Mimosoideae
Tribe: Mimoseae
Genus: Leucaena
Species: Leucaena leucocephala
Subspecies: Leucaena leucocephala ssp. glabrata, Leucaena leucocephala ssp. ixtahuacana, Leucaena leucocephala ssp. leucocephala
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