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.
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