Adenanthera pavonina

Adenanthera pavonina, the Red Sandalwood or Coral Tree is cultivated for forage, as an ornamental garden plant or urban tree. It is a non-climbing species of leguminous tree useful for nitrogen fixation. It has many uses including food and drink, traditional medicine, timber, an ornamental garden plant/urban tree and as a shade tree. It has an attractive, spreading canopy. It flowers early spring to late summer fruiting in mid summer to autumn.

Adenanthera pavonina is a deciduous Tree growing to 18 m by 10 m at a fast rate.
It is hardy to zone 10 and is frost tender. The flowers are pollinated by Insects.
It can fix Nitrogen.
Suitable for: light , medium and heavy soils, prefers well-drained soil and can grow in nutritionally poor soil. Suitable pH: acid, neutral and basic soils and can grow in very acid and very alkaline soils.
It cannot grow in the shade. It prefers moist soil. The plant is not wind tolerant.

Agroforestry Services: Alley crop Agroforestry Services: Crop shade Agroforestry Services: Nitrogen Beans Toxic Raw Fodder: Pod Industrial Crop: Fiber Management: Coppice Management: Standard Regional Crop Staple Crop: Protein-oil
A plant of the humid, lowland tropics and subtropics, where it is found at elevations up to 400 metres. It grows best in areas where annual daytime temperatures are within the range 22 - 28°c, but can tolerate 12 - 36°c. It prefers a mean annual rainfall in the range 3,000 - 5,000mm, but tolerates 2,000 - 6,000mm. Prefers a sunny position, tolerating light shade. Succeeds in any moderately fertile, moisture-retentive soil. It is found in the wild on a variety of soils, from deep, well-drained to shallow and rocky. Prefers a pH in the range 5 - 7, tolerating 4.5 - 7.5. Established plants are drought tolerant. Requires a position sheltered from high winds. Plants can become invasive in lowland regions. Growth is initially slow but increases rapidly after the first year, during which average annual growth rates of 23 - 26mm in diameter and 200 - 230cm in height can be attained. Trees planted 1 x 2 metres apart for windbreaks and at 2 x 2 metres in plantations can be thinned in 3 - 5 years to provide fuel wood and construction materials. For shade trees, spacing varies from 5 to 10 metres, depending on the companion crop and site. Trees resprout easily, allowing for coppice management with good survival. The tree is susceptible to breakage in high winds, with most of the damage occurring in the crown. The seeds are fairly uniform and were traditionally used as weights by apothecaries and goldsmiths - each seed weighing nearly 4grains . 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.