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. Acacias have yellow flowers, but what distinguishes them from other plants species is that they either have bipinnate leaves or phyllodes. Here are some acacia flower photos, and information about what species are found in Australia.
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Acacia Plant Species with Round Flowers and Bipinnate Leaves In southern parts of Australia, there are four quite similar species of acacia: 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 have been naturalised to other states like Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and southern parts of Queensland. Silver wattle and black wattle are also found in Tasmania.
Acacia Plant Species with Round Flowers and Phyllodes Most of Australian wattles have phyllodes instead of leaves. Fringed Wattle (Acacia fimbriata), Blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon), Queensland Silves 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 Plant 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 on Cape York peninsula in far north Queensland and the top end of Northern Territory.
NOTE: This website is written in British English, which is the English we use in Australia. You will find words like "traveller", "harbour" and "realise", and they are all correct in the language used in Australia.
