Acacia pycnantha, most commonly known as the golden wattle, is a tree of the family Fabaceae native to southeastern Australia. It grows to a height of 8m and has phyllodes instead of true leaves. The bark of A. pyCnantha produces more tannin than any other wattle species, resulting in its commercial cultivation.
About Acacia pycnantha in brief
Acacia pycnantha, most commonly known as the golden wattle, is a tree of the family Fabaceae native to southeastern Australia. It grows to a height of 8 m and has phyllodes instead of true leaves. The bark of A. pyCnantha produces more tannin than any other wattle species, resulting in its commercial cultivation. It has been widely grown as an ornamental garden plant and for cut flower production, but has become a weed in South Africa, Tanzania, Italy, Portugal, Sardinia, India, Indonesia, New Zealand, as well as Western Australia, Tasmania and New South Wales. It was made the official floral emblem of Australia in 1988, and has been featured on the country’s postal stamps. The type specimen was collected by the explorer Thomas Mitchell in present-day northern Victoria between the Pyramid Hill and the Loddon River. The specific epithet is from the Greek words pyknos and anthos, a reference to the dense cluster of flowers that make up the globular inflorescences. The species was formally described by George Bentham in the London Journal of Botany in 1842. No subspecies are recognised, and the species is treated as a synonym of Racosperma, a genus in which it is the only member of the genus. It is found from southern New. South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, through Victoria and into southeastern South Australia.
The mature trees do not have true leaves but have phyllode—flat and widened leaf stems—that hang down from the branches. Each inflorescence is a ball-like structure that is covered by 40 to 100 small flowers that have five tiny petals and long erect stamens, which give the flower head a fluffy appearance. The seed pods are flattish, straight or slightly curved, 5–14 cm long and 5–8 mm wide. They are initially bright green, maturing to dark brown and have slight constrictions between the seeds, which are arranged in a line in the pod. The oblong seeds themselves are 5 to 6 mm long, black and shiny, with a clavate aril. They are released in December and January, when the pods are fully ripe, when they are fully mature. A. leiophylla has palerphyllodes. Acacia obliquinervia has grey-green phyllODE, fewer flowers in its flower heads, and broader -wide) seed pods. The yellow inflorescence occurs in groups of 40 to 80 on 2. 5–9 cm -long racemes that arise from axillary buds. New growth has a bronze colouration. Field observations at Hale Conservation Park show the bulk of new growth to take place over spring and summer from October to January. Floral buds are produced year-round on the tips of newgrowth, but only those initiated between November and May go on to flower several months later.
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This page is based on the article Acacia pycnantha published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 06, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
