Acacia baileyana

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Cootamundra wattle
Acacia baileyana.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Caesalpinioideae
Clade: Mimosoid clade
Genus: Acacia
Species:
A. baileyana
Binomial name
Acacia baileyana
Acacia-baileyana-range-map.png
Range of Acacia baileyana
Synonyms

Acacia baileyana or Cootamundra wattle is a shrub or tree in the flowering plant family Fabaceae. The scientific name of the species honours the botanist Frederick Manson Bailey. It is indigenous to a very small area in southern inland New South Wales, comprising Temora, Cootamundra, Stockinbingal and Bethungra districts. However, it has been widely planted in other Australian states and territories. In many areas of Victoria, it has become naturalised and is regarded as a weed, outcompeting indigenous Victorian species.

Contents

Almost all wattles have cream to golden flowers. The small flowers are arranged in spherical to cylindrical inflorescences, with only the stamens prominent. Wattles have been extensively introduced into New Zealand.

Uses

Profile of a Cootamundra wattle in Canberra, ACT Acacia baileyana 3, Canberra ACT.JPG
Profile of a Cootamundra wattle in Canberra, ACT

A. baileyana is used in Europe in the cut flower industry. It is also used as food for bees in the production of honey. [4] American urban landscape designer Renée Gunter uses this plant in her South Los Angeles lawn as a drought-resistant alternative to thirstier plants. [5]

Less than 0.02% alkaloids were found in a chemical analysis of Acacia baileyana. [6]

Cultivation

This plant is adaptable and easy to grow. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. [7] Unfortunately, it has an ability to naturalise (i.e. escape) into surrounding bushland. Also, it hybridises with some other wattles, notably the rare and endangered Sydney Basin species Acacia pubescens .

A prostrate weeping form is in cultivation. Its origin is unknown, but it is a popular garden plant, with its cascading horizontal branches good for rockeries. [8] The fine foliage of the original Cootamundra wattle is grey-green, but a blue-purple foliaged form, known as 'Purpurea' is very popular. [9]

Use of colour

The colour Cootamundra wattle is used currently by the Australian Capital Territory Fire Brigade as their colour scheme for firefighting appliances.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

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Acacia cultriformis, known as the knife-leaf wattle, dogtooth wattle, half-moon wattle or golden-glow wattle, is a perennial tree or shrub of the genus Acacia native to Australia. It is widely cultivated, and has been found to have naturalised in Asia, Africa, North America, New Zealand and South America. A. cultriformis grows to a height of about 4 m (13 ft) and has triangle-shaped phyllodes. The yellow flowers appear from August to November in its natural range. Its attractive foliage and bright flowers make it a popular garden plant.

<i>Acacia pycnantha</i> Golden wattle of southeastern Australia

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<i>Acacia melanoxylon</i> Species of legume

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<i>Acacia denticulosa</i> Species of legume

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<i>Acacia dealbata</i> Species of flowering plant

Acacia dealbata, the silver wattle, blue wattle or mimosa, is a species of flowering plant in the legume family Fabaceae, native to southeastern Australia in New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, and the Australian Capital Territory, and widely introduced in Mediterranean, warm temperate, and highland tropical landscapes.

<i>Acacia salicina</i> Species of plant

Acacia salicina is a thornless species of Acacia native to Australia. It is a large shrub or small evergreen tree growing up to 13.7 m tall. It is a fast grower, dropping lots of leaf litter, with a life span of about 10–50 years. In its native range, A. salicina flowers from February to June. In the Northern Hemisphere, A. salicina flowers primarily from October to January and the seed pods are often visible from April to July. The tree's seeds are shiny, black and have a crimson appendage-like aril. A. salicina is "closely related" to Acacia ligulata and Acacia bivenosa.

<i>Acacia decurrens</i> Species of legume

Acacia decurrens, commonly known as black wattle or early green wattle, is a perennial tree or shrub native to eastern New South Wales, including Sydney, the Greater Blue Mountains Area, the Hunter Region, and southwest to the Australian Capital Territory. It grows to a height of 2–15 m (7–50 ft) and it flowers from July to September.

<i>Acacia falcata</i> Species of legume

Acacia falcata, commonly known as sickle wattle and by other vernacular names including sally, is a perennial shrub or tree native to eastern Australia, which reaches five metres in height and has cream flowers in early winter. It gets its common and scientific name for its sickle-shaped leaves. Hardy and adaptable to cultivation, it is used in regeneration of bushland.

<i>Acacia floribunda</i> Species of legume

Acacia floribunda is a perennial evergreen shrub or tree. It is a species of wattle native to New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria, but is cultivated extensively, and has naturalised in South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia, and also in Indonesia, Mauritius and northern New Zealand. Common names for it include gossamer wattle, weeping acacia and white sallow wattle. It grows up to 6m in height, but there is a commercial form available which only grows to about 1m tall. Its cream-colored flowers occur in the early Spring.

<i>Acacia longifolia</i> Species of plant

Acacia longifolia is a species of Acacia native to southeastern Australia, from the extreme southeast of Queensland, eastern New South Wales, eastern and southern Victoria, southeastern South Australia, and Tasmania. Common names for it include long-leaved wattle, acacia trinervis, aroma doble, golden wattle, coast wattle, sallow wattle and Sydney golden wattle. It is not listed as being a threatened species, and is considered invasive in Portugal, New Zealand and South Africa. In the southern region of Western Australia, it has become naturalised and has been classed as a weed by out-competing indigenous species. It is a tree that grows very quickly reaching 7–10 m in five to six years.

<i>Acacia retinodes</i> Species of legume

Acacia retinodes is an evergreen shrub that is native to South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania. Short racemes of yellow flowers are produced periodically throughout the year. Some common names are retinodes water wattle, swamp wattle, wirilda, ever-blooming wattle and silver wattle.

<i>Acacia podalyriifolia</i> Species of legume

Acacia podalyriifolia is a perennial tree which is fast-growing and widely cultivated. It is native to Australia but is also naturalised in Malaysia, Africa, India and South America. Its uses include environmental management and it is also used as an ornamental tree. It is very closely related to Acacia uncifera. It grows to about 5 m in height and about the same in total width. It blooms during winter.

<i>Acacia pendula</i> Species of legume

Acacia pendula, commonly known as the weeping myall, true myall, myall, silver-leaf boree, boree, and nilyah, is a species of wattle, which is native to Australia. The 1889 book The Useful Native Plants of Australia records that common names included "Weeping Myall", "True Myall", and Indigenous people of western areas of New South Wales and Queensland referred to the plant as "Boree" and "Balaar".

<i>Acacia elata</i> Species of legume

Acacia elata, the cedar wattle or mountain cedar wattle, is a tree found in eastern Australia.

<i>Acacia verticillata</i> Species of legume

Acacia verticillata is a perennial shrub to small tree native to south eastern Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prostrate shrub</span> Shrub with a trailing habit

A prostrate shrub is a woody plant, most of the branches of which lie upon or just above the ground, rather than being held erect as are the branches of most trees and shrubs.

<i>Acacia leprosa</i> Scarlet Blaze Variety of acacia

Acacia 'Scarlet Blaze' is a cultivar of Acacia leprosa originating from Victoria in Australia. It is noted for its unusual red flowers.

<i>Acacia pubescens</i> Species of legume

Acacia pubescens, also known as the downy wattle, is a species of wattle found in the Sydney Basin in eastern New South Wales. The downy wattle is classified as vulnerable; much of its habitat has vanished with the growth of the city of Sydney. As with all wattles, it has compound (pinnate) leaf stems.

<i>Acacia monticola</i> Species of legume

Acacia monticola, commonly known as red wattle, gawar, curly-bark wattle, curly-bark tree and hill turpentine, is a species of plant in the legume family that is native to northern Australia.

<i>Acacia iteaphylla</i> Species of plant

Acacia iteaphylla, commonly known as Flinders Range wattle, Port Lincoln wattle, winter wattle and willow-leaved wattle, is a shrub belonging to the genus Acacia and the subgenus Phyllodineae that is endemic to South Australia.

References

  1. "Acacia baileyana". Australian Plant Name Index (APNI), IBIS database. Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, Australian Government, Canberra. Retrieved 4 December 2012.
  2. Mueller, F.J.H. von (1888) Descriptions of some hitherto unknown Australian plants. Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria 24(2): 168.
  3. "Acacia baileyana". LegumeWeb. International Legume Database & Information Service.
  4. "Uses of Australian Acacias". World Wide Wattle. 29 May 2013.
  5. Lodi News-Sentinel, Oct 12, 2007, Bettijane Levine, Los Angeles Times, Drought resistant plants, Retrieved Aug. 18, 2007
  6. Hegnauer, Robert (1996). Caesalpinioideae und Mimosoideae. Springer. p. 336. ISBN   978-3-7643-5165-6.
  7. "Acacia baileyana AGM". Plant Selector. Royal Horticultural Society.
  8. Stewart 2001 , p. 156
  9. Stewart 2001 , p. 157

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