• Family : MIMOSACEAE
  (Pea Or Bean Family)
• Family (Hindi name) : BABOOL FAMILY (बबूल फैमिली)
• Family (as per The APG System III) : LEGUMINOSAE
• Subfamily : Mimosoideae
• Basionym : Mimosa leucocephala Lam.
• Synonym(s) : Leucaena latisiliqua (L.) Gillis sensu Pullaiah & K. Sree Rama Murthy. 2001.
• Species Name (as per The Plant List) : Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit
• Common name : Subaul, Lead tree, Leucaena, Shite lead tree (Mal.)
• Vernacular name : Subabool Subabul, Koobabul, Kubabul (Hindi); Naattu Cauvindal (Tamil); Kainti, Kantisubabul (Telugu); Nagarjun, Rajokasundiri (Oria); Kubabhul (Marathi); Ippilippil, Subaul (Malayalam)
• Habit : Tree
• Habitat : Plains and foothills of forests
• Comments / notes : Introduced as a cover crop in plantations and for fodder and fuel; now is an escape and also naturalized. Sometimes is an aggressive colonizer. L. latisiliqua (L.) Gillis is different from L. leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit, but most of the Indian taxonomists consider these two taxa are the same
• Key identification features : Tree, flowers small in dense, globose, white heads; pod thin; seeds brown.
• Flower, Fruit : Throughout the year
• Distribution :
  • Andhra Pradesh : Throughout Andhra Pradesh
  • Kerala : All districts of Kerala
  • Maharashtra : Akola district
  • Odisha : Throughout Odisha
  • Tamil Nadu : Introduced
• Native : Tropical America
• World Distribution : Pantropical
• Conservation Status : Not Evaluated (NE)
• Literature : Pullaiah et al., 2001 - Flora of Eastern Ghats Vol. 2; H.O. Saxena & M. Brahmam, 1994- Flora of Orissa Vol. 1; R. S. Rao et al., 1986 - Flora of West Godavari District; Matthew, K.M., Flora of Tamil Nadu Carnatic, Vol.3 (1). Diocesan Press, Madras. 1983; Sasidharan, N. 2011. Flowering plants of Kerala. DVD, V 2, KFRI; Henry, Kumari & Chithra (1983). Flora of Tamil Nadu, India vol. 1.; Kamble & Pradhan, 1988. Flora of Akola District, Maharashtra. Botanical Survey of India
• Citation : Sankara Rao, K., Raja K Swamy, Deepak Kumar, Arun Singh R. and K. Gopalakrishna Bhat (2019). Flora of Peninsular India. http://peninsula.ces.iisc.ac.in/plants.php?name=Leucaena leucocephala. Downloaded on 21 November 2024.

Botanical Description

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