Leucaena leucocephala: an underutilized plant for pulp and paper production

Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit. is native to Central America and Mexico, but now grows naturally in most tropical areas globally. It is a neglected and underutilized; medium to small sized tree of multiple values. It is commonly known as wild tamarind in English and subabul in Hindi. In recent years, Leucaena has gained a great attention for its utilization as raw material on large scale for pulp and paper industries and manufacturing of packaging material. Present paper deals with distribution, morphological description, current utilization, future prospective and propagation of this species. During the present study we have standardized macro-propagation technique for L. leucocephala. We used fly ash amended sand to develop rooting media for vegetative propagation of L. leucocephala and assess its potential as a rooting media. Root formation was significantly high (p < 0.05) in 10 % FA amended sand in comparison to other used media. Rooted plants showed nutrient deficiency symptoms after 40-50 days in sand while in 10 % FA amended sand they were healthy, greener and do not showed nutrient deficiency symptoms. On the basis of present study, it is concluded that 10 % fly ash amended sand is a suitable rooting media for vegetative propagation of L. leucocephala.