Australian Acacia Tree

Australian Acacia tree is very beautiful.
There are more than thousand species of Acacias in the world, but the waste majority of them are native to Australia.
They are also called wattles, and sometimes Mimosa plants, because they belong the family Mimosaceae.

 Acacia tree by manuel m. v. via Flickr.com

Acacias have yellow flowers, but what distinguishes them from other plants species is that they either have bipinnate leaves or phyllodes.

Acacia Tree Species with Round Flowers and Bipinnate Leaves
In southern parts of Australia, there are four species of acacia that are quite similar to each other: Cootamundra wattle (Acacia baileyana), Black Wattle (Acacia mearnsii), Silver Wattle (Acacia dealbata) and Green Wattle, also called Early Black Wattle (Acacia decurrens).

All four have bipinnate leaves and fluffy globular flowers. Cootamundra Wattle is found in Mallee communities in cool locations and acid soils. Silver, black and green wattles are found in sclerophyll forests. All four are native to New South Wales, and now also grow in other states like Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and southern parts of Queensland. Silver wattle and black wattle are also found in Tasmania.

Acacia Tree Species with Round Flowers and Phyllodes
Most of Australian wattles have phyllodes instead of leaves. Fringed Wattle (Acacia fimbriata), Blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon), Queensland Silver Wattle (Acacia podalyriifolia), Golden Rain Wattle (Acacia prominens) and Golden Wattle (Acacia pycnantha) have fluffy globular flowers similar to the species mentioned above. Blackwood, Queensland Silver and Golden Rain Wattle have broader phyllodes while Fringed and Golden Wattle have narrow ones. Fringed and Queensland Silver Wattle are found in parts of southern Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. Black Wattle and Golden wattle are found in southern parts of Australia, mainly in Victoria, but also in southern parts of New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia. Golden rain wattle is restricted to places in inland Victoria and New South Wales; and Blackwood is common in the coastal areas of Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.

Acacia Tree Species with Elongate Flowers and Phyllodes
Species with the typical elongate yellow flowers are Mulga (Acacia aneura), Sydney Golden Wattle, Northern Black Wattle (Acacia auriculiformis) and Prickley Moses (Acacia verticillata). The first three have medium-broad phylloids while the phylloids of Prickly Moses are needle-like. Mulga is a very common wattle that is found throughout the arid areas of inland Australia. Prickly Moses is found mainly in Victoria, but also in places in South Australia and coastal Tasmania. Sydney Golden Wattle is found in coastal areas of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and southern Queensland. Northern Black Wattle is found in Cape York in far north Queensland and the top end of Northern Territory.