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Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-077
Leucaena
Leucaena leucocephala
Leucaena fixes nitrogen faster than almost anything else on record, 150 to 300 kg per hectare a year, and its leaves and seed run as rich in protein as alfalfa. Young pods, leaves and flower buds are eaten raw or cooked, the seed roasts as a coffee substitute, and the wood supplies firewood, charcoal and timber. Its foliage carries mimosine, a compound that limits how much of it different livestock can safely eat and rules out horses and donkeys entirely, so feeding it takes care. It only holds up where days stay warm year-round - heavy frost kills it outright, and it is also a regulated noxious weed in some places, so its legal status is worth checking before planting.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 9–10
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Dry · Well-Drained · Moderate
Vertical layer
Sub-Canopy- Soil pH
- 6–8
- Plant type
- Evergreen Tree
- Mature height
- 16–66 ft
- Mature spread
- 32.8 ft
- Plant spacing
- 12–15 ft
- Root type
- Tap
- Spread pattern
- Seed
Keep exploring
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Bael
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The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
- Locked ecological function
- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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