# characteristics of apple ring acacia / Faidherbia Albida



## Mr. Peet (Mar 8, 2021)

Whatever5784 said:


> Thats a good idea mark, I’ll definitely start doing that from now on! Thanks
> 
> ive never seen the grey before, only red and dark brown. Not sure if it needs sun to redden up since I haven’t used this species until very recently



*MODERATORS NOTE: this was broken off of the now ended thread https://woodbarter.com/threads/ended-olive-wood-sample-shipment-updated.44773/*

Hey Laith (@Whatever5784) ,

Not to add work to your load, but you need to look into your wood identified as _Faidherbia albida_. I really should have taken a smidge more time before making my purchase but have missed so many opportunities on WoodBarter before by being too patient, I bought before researching. When the wood arrived, I noticed more checking so I processed a few samples as soon as possible to release and hopefully ease stresses. So today I had an hour to do some reading and found lots of conflicting information. One source had-

http://tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Faidherbia+albida

 The heartwood is pale and creamy; the brown sapwood slightly paler than the heartwood. The wood is hard, of medium weight. It is susceptible to staining fungi and pinhole borer when green; therefore, it is left to soak for several months to remove sap and minimize attack by fungi, borers and termites. Even after the most careful seasoning, the boards tend to spring and twist one or two hours after they are sawn. The wood works fairly easily by hand, but a smooth finish is difficult to obtain. Care must be taken when nailing, bolting and joining. It is used to make utensils, handicrafts, canoes, furniture, boxes, drums and oil presses[299

The wood is an excellent fuel[299

So, wood colors were off, seasoning made sense. Then source #2

http://treesa.org/faidherbia-albida/ 
Faidherbia albida | Tree SA 
The *Wood* is white, coarse-grained, of relatively low density and is used for making water-troughs. It needs to be soaked for many months to help prevent insect attack.

Now this wood color is way off but talks about soaking the wood like the first finding. 

So then I went to my books, they all matched the second description of white to light colored wood for both heartwood and sapwood. Only dark wood (brown hued) found around injury. Course grained wood, wood pores, medium to large, heartwood pores containing gums, parenchyma is paratracheal and banded. Bands wavy...

Most of the information I find is from southern Africa and northern Africa, nothing from Israel. Could you please follow up with your contacts to see if this is a sub-species, different species or confirm ID?

Thank you.

P.S. Paul, if this should be in the wood ID Forum, please move it. Thank you. *YEP. DONE.*


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## phinds (Mar 9, 2021)

@Mr. Peet Mark, I appear to be getting yet another description in Dyer's book on African woods that you gave me:

*The wood is white to yellow with no distinction between heartwood and sapwood ... *​
She also gives a synonym of Albizia albida and The Plant list agrees.

"No distinction between heartwood and sapwood" certainly doesn't look like this wood .


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## Gonzalodqa (Mar 9, 2021)

Doing some quick research I found this 

"F. albida wood is often used for canoes, drinking
troughs, fencing, firewood and for construction of
houses, barns and grain stores. It is bright yellow to
white in color, light and has a density of about 560
kg·m-³ at a water content of 12%. Its energy value as
fuel is 19.74 kJ·kg−1" (DOI 10.1007/s11632-011-0202-y)

Other studies I read only focus on the anatomical structure of the wood and not mention a color appearance


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## Mr. Peet (Mar 9, 2021)

phinds said:


> @Mr. Peet Mark, I appear to be getting yet another description in Dyer's book on African woods that you gave me:
> 
> *The wood is white to yellow with no distinction between heartwood and sapwood ... *​
> She also gives a synonym of Albizia albida and The Plant list agrees.
> ...



Thank you Paul, yes, the wood was also under _Acacia albida_ for years as well. Some of the items I mentioned were from the _Southern African Wood _book. The links I had listed what Gonzalo stated as well. Most descriptions have the wood as very hard to dry. There is conflict as some list the wood as hard, but most list it as soft. I could drop it off some time. Hope you get in the shop this week. Heat wave....

Edit: Funny, did not see "Acacia" in the thread title until going to the main page...


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## Gonzalodqa (Mar 10, 2021)

Hi, I was interested in this so I went a bit further and look in french publications and I found this.
It translates to "Wood: the color is yellowish beige, sometimes dark brown in the heartwood of old trees,..." (http://bft.cirad.fr/cd/BFT_222_55-68.pdf)


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## Gonzalodqa (Mar 10, 2021)

In the technology part. It adds that the wood is light to medium-heavy, mid-hard (whatever that means because he doesn't list values), and not durable. the main use is firewood apparently

It was the only one I could find that mentions a different possible color. It could also be that other sources just quote or reference each other but it is hard to know because they usually don't reference the color part of the description. It does have wood anatomy which goes into the physic and mechanical properties but they do not mention the wood appearance

Reactions: Like 1 | Thank You! 1


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## Mr. Peet (Mar 10, 2021)

_Faidherbia albida_ (FA), also listed as _Acacia albida_ and others is listed by a few sources not reactive to blacklight. The wood in question reacts, both sapwood and heartwood. It is far less intensive than all of my Gleditsia samples, so I doubt any chance for _G. caspica_. The endgrain is off for Gleditsia also. However, FA has a very similar intensity to several acacias. Wonder if there are any acacias that have similar fruiting and general form as FA? Similar question for Albizia group...

Note: the sealant used on the original FA block (L pictured it other forum) retarded any reaction to blacklight. Only fresh cut surfaces showed reaction to blacklight.


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## Whatever5784 (Mar 11, 2021)

I talked to the guy who originally sold me this wood and it seems this a matter of things getting lost in translation.He told me it was apple-ring acacia and when I asked what its known as locally he tells me it's called "sall-lam" (stress on the first syllable, otherwise it becomes a name for yet another species) but it seems that's used as a catch all term for many different species. after pressing him we were able to narrow it down to either Vachellia Tortilis or _Vachellia seyal. now based on what I've been able to find out I think its the latter. 


Edit: I had him send me a picture of another piece of this 

_

Reactions: Like 1 | Thank You! 1 | EyeCandy! 1


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## Mr. Peet (Mar 12, 2021)

I had wondered about _Vachellia tortilis_ (aka Acacia tortillis / 'Umbrella tree' / Shittim wood, שִׁטָּה סוֹכְכָנִית ) being the seed pod can often curl to look like 'Apple-ring'. It is listed as rare in the Negev Highlands and Judean Desert but common all over the rest of Israel. However the heartwood is often darker than the wood you sent, so that was a strike, but not a strong one as color can be very variable. The other piece you just pictured looks much darker, and I assume from the same tree. The convincing blows were end grain and reaction to blacklight. The heartwood of _Vachellia tortillis_ has no recorded reaction to blacklight accept for that with various forms of infection and rot. The sapwood is listed to show some sort of reaction, no clue if it is for fresh live wood or dead seasoned wood but assume the second. Your wood had reaction for both heartwood and sapwood. So that was why I discounted that species.

_Vachellia seyal, _(aka _Acacia seyal_, 'Red acacia', shittah tree (produces shittim wood), well, I guess that is a possibility. It is listed as being on the Arabian Peninsula, but not listed as found in Israel. The common name Red acacia comes from the bark being red / having a red color where the bark spreads as fissures. It is listed as having sapwood and heartwood that reacts to blacklight. I don't have any samples of this species to compare to the unknown. The bark color might be a big help...

Here is an Israeli plant webpage that might help









Analytical Flora | Flora of Israel Online Flora of Israel Online







flora.org.il


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