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Acacia decurrens
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Acacia decurrens
Acacia decurrens, commonly known as black wattle, Sydney green wattle or early green wattle and other common names, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to New South Wales, Australia. It is a tall shrub to tree with bipinnate, dark green leaves, spherical heads of golden yellow flowers and thinly leathery pods.
Cultivated throughout Australia, Acacia decurrens has naturalised in other Australian states and introduced to many other countries.
Acacia decurrens is a tall shrub or tree that typically grows to a height of up to 10 or 25 m (33 or 82 ft) and has smooth or fissured greyish black or black bark. The branchlets have winged ridges 0.5–2 mm (0.020–0.079 in) wide and are more or less glabrous. Young foliage tips are light green or yellowish. The leaves are dark green and arranged alternately, bipinnate on a petiole 15–28 mm (0.59–1.10 in) long with 3 to 13 pairs of pinnae, each with 15 to 45 pairs of linear, widely spaced pinnules 5–15 mm (0.20–0.59 in) long and 0.4–0.8 mm (0.016–0.031 in) wide on a rhachis 20–120 mm (0.79–4.72 in) long. There are glands at the base of all the pairs of the pinnae.
The flowers are borne in spherical head in elongated racemes or in groups on the ends of branches on peduncles 3–7 mm (0.12–0.28 in) long, each head 4–7 mm (0.16–0.28 in) in diameter with 20 to 32 yellow, bright yellow or golden yellow flowers. The seed pods are straight to slightly curved, more or less flat and straight sided, 20–105 mm (0.79–4.13 in) long, 5–8.5 mm (0.20–0.33 in) wide, thinly leathery and mostly slightly constricted between the seeds. The pods mature from November to January.
This species was first formally described in 1798 by German botanist Johann Christoph Wendland who gave it the name Mimosa decurrens in his Botanische Beobachtungen: nebst einigen neuen Gattungen und Arten before his countryman Carl Ludwig Willdenow redescribed it in the genus Acacia as A. decurrens in 1806. In his description, Willdenow did not cite Wendland but instead a 1796 description by James Donn. However, as Donn's description was a nomen nudum, the proper citation is Acacia decurrens Willd.
The specific epithet (decurrens) means 'running down', referring to the narrow ridges on the leaves that are continuous with the branchlets.
Queensland botanist Les Pedley reclassified the species as Racosperma decurrens in 2003, when he proposed placing almost all Australian members of the genus into the new genus Racosperma. However, this name is treated as a synonym of its original name.
Common names include green wattle, Sydney green wattle, early black wattle, early green wattle, black wattle, wattah and boo'kerrikin in the local Dharawal language. Maiden noted that it was called wat-tah by the indigenous people of Cumberland (Parramatta) and Camden districts. Sydney wattle was a name coined by von Mueller and early settlers around Penrith called it green wattle. Feathery wattle was another early name. It is also known as early green wattle in the Sydney basin, as it flowers in winter—earlier than similar species, such as Parramatta wattle (Acacia parramattensis), blueskin (A. irrorata) and late black wattle (A. mearnsii). It has attracted the vernacular name 'green cancer' in South Africa, where it has become weedy.
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Acacia decurrens
Acacia decurrens, commonly known as black wattle, Sydney green wattle or early green wattle and other common names, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to New South Wales, Australia. It is a tall shrub to tree with bipinnate, dark green leaves, spherical heads of golden yellow flowers and thinly leathery pods.
Cultivated throughout Australia, Acacia decurrens has naturalised in other Australian states and introduced to many other countries.
Acacia decurrens is a tall shrub or tree that typically grows to a height of up to 10 or 25 m (33 or 82 ft) and has smooth or fissured greyish black or black bark. The branchlets have winged ridges 0.5–2 mm (0.020–0.079 in) wide and are more or less glabrous. Young foliage tips are light green or yellowish. The leaves are dark green and arranged alternately, bipinnate on a petiole 15–28 mm (0.59–1.10 in) long with 3 to 13 pairs of pinnae, each with 15 to 45 pairs of linear, widely spaced pinnules 5–15 mm (0.20–0.59 in) long and 0.4–0.8 mm (0.016–0.031 in) wide on a rhachis 20–120 mm (0.79–4.72 in) long. There are glands at the base of all the pairs of the pinnae.
The flowers are borne in spherical head in elongated racemes or in groups on the ends of branches on peduncles 3–7 mm (0.12–0.28 in) long, each head 4–7 mm (0.16–0.28 in) in diameter with 20 to 32 yellow, bright yellow or golden yellow flowers. The seed pods are straight to slightly curved, more or less flat and straight sided, 20–105 mm (0.79–4.13 in) long, 5–8.5 mm (0.20–0.33 in) wide, thinly leathery and mostly slightly constricted between the seeds. The pods mature from November to January.
This species was first formally described in 1798 by German botanist Johann Christoph Wendland who gave it the name Mimosa decurrens in his Botanische Beobachtungen: nebst einigen neuen Gattungen und Arten before his countryman Carl Ludwig Willdenow redescribed it in the genus Acacia as A. decurrens in 1806. In his description, Willdenow did not cite Wendland but instead a 1796 description by James Donn. However, as Donn's description was a nomen nudum, the proper citation is Acacia decurrens Willd.
The specific epithet (decurrens) means 'running down', referring to the narrow ridges on the leaves that are continuous with the branchlets.
Queensland botanist Les Pedley reclassified the species as Racosperma decurrens in 2003, when he proposed placing almost all Australian members of the genus into the new genus Racosperma. However, this name is treated as a synonym of its original name.
Common names include green wattle, Sydney green wattle, early black wattle, early green wattle, black wattle, wattah and boo'kerrikin in the local Dharawal language. Maiden noted that it was called wat-tah by the indigenous people of Cumberland (Parramatta) and Camden districts. Sydney wattle was a name coined by von Mueller and early settlers around Penrith called it green wattle. Feathery wattle was another early name. It is also known as early green wattle in the Sydney basin, as it flowers in winter—earlier than similar species, such as Parramatta wattle (Acacia parramattensis), blueskin (A. irrorata) and late black wattle (A. mearnsii). It has attracted the vernacular name 'green cancer' in South Africa, where it has become weedy.
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