Australian Native Plants

  Acacia genistifolia (Spreading Wattle)


Acacia genistifolia photo
Spreading Wattle or Early Wattle, Acacia genistifolia, Tasmania

Photograph by KeresH. Some rights reserved.    (view image details)




SPREADING WATTLE FACTS

distribution map showing range of Acacia genistifolia in Australia

Map is from The Atlas of Living Australia web site, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia License


Common Name
Spreading Wattle

Description
Spreading Wattle is a small to medium sized shrub growing to a height of about 3 m tall. The phyllodes are narrow and sharp pointed growing from 1,5 cm to 3 cm in length. The plant flowers in late summer, autumn, winter and spring. It produces showy cream or pale-yellow flowers in spherical flower heads in groups of two to four from the phyllode axils. Each flower head contains 12 to 25 flowers. The seed pods are long and thin growing 4 cm to 11 cm in length and 4 mm to 7 mm wide. The seeds are about 5 mm long.

Habitat
open eucalypt forest, heathland

Distribution
Spreading Wattle is endemic to south eastern New South Wales, eastern Victoria and eastern Tasmania.

Growth Characteristics
Height: 1m - 3m
Spread: 1m - 2m

Propagation
scarified seed

Wildlife Interest
attracts seed-eating birds

Classification
Class:Magnoliopsida
Order:Fabales
Family:Mimosaceae
Genus:Acacia
Species:genistifolia
Common Name:Spreading Wattle


Relatives in same Genus
  Acacia acanthoclada
  Acacia acinacea
  Acacia acradenia
  Acacia aculeatissima
  Acacia alata
  Acacia amblygona
  Acacia amoena
  Acacia aneura
  Acacia aulacocarpa
  Acacia auriculiformis
  Acacia baileyana
  Acacia beckleri
  Acacia boormanii
  Acacia brachybotrya
  Acacia brachystachya
  Acacia buxifolia
  Acacia caesiella
  Acacia calamifolia
  Acacia cardiophylla
  Acacia chrysocephala
  Acacia cognata
  see A-Z list for more ...