''Acacia longifolia'' is a species of ''

Acacia ''Acacia'', commonly known as the wattles or acacias, is a large genus of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa and Australasia. The genus na ...

'' native to southeastern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, from the extreme southeast of

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

, eastern

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, eastern and southern

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, and southeastern

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

. 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 Threatened species are any species (including animals, plants and fungi) which are vulnerable to endangerment in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of ''critical depensa ...

,Australian Plant Name Index
''Acacia longifolia''
/ref> and is considered invasive in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

.Vespa australiana pode ajudar a reduzir invasão das acácias
/ref> In the southern region of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

, it has become naturalised and has been classed as a weed by out-competing indigenous species. It is a

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

that grows very quickly reaching 7–10 m in five to six years.

Description

Golden wattle occurs as both a shrub or tree that can reach a height of up to . It has smooth to finely fissured greyish coloured bark and

glabrous Glabrousness (from the Latin '' glaber'' meaning "bald", "hairless", "shaved", "smooth") is the technical term for a lack of hair, down, setae, trichomes or other such covering. A glabrous surface may be a natural characteristic of all or part of ...

branchlets that are angled towards the apices. Like most species of ''Acacia'' it has

phyllode Phyllodes are modified petioles or leaf stems, which are leaf-like in appearance and function. In some plants, these become flattened and widened, while the leaf itself becomes reduced or vanishes altogether. Thus the phyllode comes to serve the ...

s rather than true leaves. The evergreen and glabrous phyllodes are mostly straight but occasionally slightly curved with a length of and a width of and have numerous prominent longitudinal veins. It blooms between June and October in its native range producing simple

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

s that occur singly or in pairs in the phyllode

axil A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, st ...

s on stalks with a length of less than . The cylindrical flower-spikes have a length of packed with bright to pale yellow coloured flowers. Following flowering thinly leathery to firmly papery

seed pod This page provides a glossary of plant morphology. Botanists and other biologists who study plant morphology use a number of different terms to classify and identify plant organs and parts that can be observed using no more than a handheld magnify ...

s form that are straight to strongly twisted and raised over and constricted between each of the seeds. The pods are usually in length and and reasonably brittle when dry.

Taxonomy

The species was first formally described by

Henry Cranke Andrews Henry Cranke Andrews (floruit, fl. 1794 – 1830), was an English botanist, botanical artist and engraver. As he always published as Henry C. Andrews, and due to difficulty finding records, the C. was often referred to as Charles, until a reco ...

in 1802 as ''Mimosa longifolia'' in ''The Botanist's Repository for New, and Rare Plants'' then in 1806 as ''Acacia longifolia'' in the

Carl Ludwig Willdenow Carl Ludwig Willdenow (22 August 1765 – 10 July 1812) was a German botanist, pharmacist, and plant taxonomist. He is considered one of the founders of phytogeography, the study of the geographic distribution of plants. Willdenow was als ...

publication ''

Species Plantarum ' (Latin for "The Species of Plants") is a book by Carl Linnaeus, originally published in 1753, which lists every species of plant known at the time, classified into genera. It is the first work to consistently apply binomial names and was the ...

''. It was reclassified as ''Racosperma longifolium'' in 1987 by

Leslie Pedley Leslie Pedley (19 May 1930 – 27 November 2018)IPNILeslie Pedley/ref> was an Australian botanist who specialised in the genus ''Acacia''. He is notable for bringing into use the generic name ''Racosperma'', creating a split in the genus, which r ...

then transferred back to genus ''Acacia'' in 2006. Other synonyms include ''Mimosa macrostachya'' and ''Phyllodoce longifolia''. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

refers to the long phyllodes on this species. There are two recognised

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

: *''Acacia longifolia'' subsp. ''longifolia'' * ''Acacia longifolia'' subsp. ''sophorae'' (Labill.) Court

Distribution

The species is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to coastal area of south eastern

close to the border with New South Wales extending southward down the coast of

. In New South Wales it is common along the tablelands and coastal areas where it is situated in various habitats including foredunes and is usually a part of

sclerophyll Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaf, leaves, short Internode (botany), internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem) and leaf orientation which is paral ...

woodland or coastal heath and scrub communities. The range then extends south and east through

and into

. In South Australia it is found on the

Eyre Peninsula The Eyre Peninsula is a triangular peninsula in South Australia. It is bounded by the Spencer Gulf on the east, the Great Australian Bight on the west, and the Gawler Ranges to the north. Originally called Eyre’s Peninsula, it was named aft ...

Yorke Peninsula The Yorke Peninsula is a peninsula located northwest and west of Adelaide in South Australia, between Spencer Gulf on the west and Gulf St Vincent on the east. The peninsula is separated from Kangaroo Island to the south by Investigator Strai ...

Kangaroo Island Kangaroo Island, also known as Karta Pintingga (literally 'Island of the Dead' in the language of the Kaurna people), is Australia's third-largest island, after Tasmania and Melville Island. It lies in the state of South Australia, southwest ...

, southern

Lofty Ranges Lofty may refer to: Places * Mount Lofty (disambiguation), several places and associated subjects in Australia People * Lofty Blomfield, (1908–1971), New Zealand professional wrestler * Lofty Drews (born 1940), World Rally Championship co-driv ...

and throughout the south eastern region where it is mostly restricted to sand dunes. It has become

naturalised Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the i ...

in the south west of

in coastal areas extending from around

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

in the north down to around Albany in the south. It is thought to have introduced by escaping from gardens and being used in restoration plantings. Control methods include hand pulling seedlings and

ringbarking Girdling, also called ring-barking, is the complete removal of the bark (consisting of cork cambium or "phellogen", phloem, cambium and sometimes going into the xylem) from around the entire circumference of either a branch or trunk of a woody ...

or using

glyphosate Glyphosate (IUPAC name: ''N''-(phosphonomethyl)glycine) is a broad-spectrum Herbicide, systemic herbicide and Crop desiccation, crop desiccant. It is an organophosphorus compound, specifically a phosphonate, which acts by inhibiting the plan ...

on older plants.

Uses

''Acacia longifolia'' is widely cultivated in subtropical regions of the world. Its uses include prevention of soil erosion, food (flowers, seeds and seed pods), yellow

dye A dye is a colored substance that chemically bonds to the substrate to which it is being applied. This distinguishes dyes from pigments which do not chemically bind to the material they color. Dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution an ...

(from the flowers), green dye (pods) and wood. The flower colour derives from the organic compound

kaempferol Kaempferol (3,4′,5,7-tetrahydroxyflavone) is a natural flavonol, a type of flavonoid, found in a variety of plants and plant-derived foods including kale, beans, tea, spinach, and broccoli. Kaempferol is a yellow crystalline solid with a meltin ...

. The tree's bark has limited use in tanning, primarily for

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus ''Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated s ...

skin. It is useful for securing uninhabited sand in coastal areas, primarily where there are not too many hard frosts. In Tasmania the ripening pods were roasted and the seeds removed and eaten. Galls of Trichilogaster acaciaelongifoliae (Froggatt) 9798

Galls of Trichilogaster acaciaelongifoliae (Froggatt) 9798

Cultivation

The shrub is available commercially and can be propagated by seed

scarification Scarification involves scratching, etching, burning/branding, or superficially cutting designs, pictures, or words into the skin as a permanent body modification or body art. The body modification can take roughly 6–12 months to heal. In the p ...

or boiling water treatment. It is regarded as an attractive, hardy, fast-growing species suitable as a hedge plant or for screening. Suitable for hydroseeding work on banks where it will provide soil stabilization. Sydney golden wattle is well suited for low maintenance areas such as road batters, will grow in a range of soil types and is

frost Frost is a thin layer of ice on a solid surface, which forms from water vapor in an above-freezing atmosphere coming in contact with a solid surface whose temperature is below freezing, and resulting in a phase change from water vapor (a gas) ...

hardy. It is heavily used at present in Southern California as a street canopy tree, as it grows fairly quickly (reaching a height of five meters within a year or two of planting), tolerates drought, and is resilient even to the particularly brutal pruning practices associated with low-cost tree services. In Portugal the species is considered highly invasive in sand dunes and its cultivation is prohibited by law.

Control

In South Africa at least, the Pteromalid wasp ''

Trichilogaster acaciaelongifoliae ''Trichilogaster acaciaelongifoliae'' is an Australian bud-galling wasp from the family Pteromalidae that parasitises, among others, ''Acacia longifolia'' (long-leaved wattle, or Sydney golden wattle), which has become an invasive pest An ...

'' has been introduced from Australia, and has spread rapidly, achieving substantial control. The effect on the trees has been described as drastic seed reduction (typically over 90%) by galling of reproductive buds, and indirect debilitation of the affected plant by increased abscission of inflorescences adjacent to the growing galls. The presence of galls also caused leaf abscission, reducing vegetative growth as well as reproductive output.

Phytochemistry

*N-(2- imidazol-4-yl-ethyl)-tran
cinnamamide
ref name="nih"> *N-(2-imidazol-4-yl-ethyl)-deca-trans-2, cis-4-dienamide * dimethyltryptamine 0.2–0.3%, histamineHegnauer, Robert (1994). Chemotaxonomie der Pflanzen. Springer. ., Nen in Entheogen Review (journal) 1994-7

Gallery

Image:Acacia longifolia fg01.JPG, Flowering Image:Acacia-longifolia-bushy-habit.jpg, Bushy habitat Image:Acacia-longifolia-tree.jpg, Cultivated Image:Aclo 001 lhp.jpg, Seeds Image:Acacia-longifolia.jpg, Illustration

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2701053 longifolia Fabales of Australia Flora of New South Wales Flora of Queensland Flora of South Australia Flora of Victoria (Australia) Plants described in 1806 Taxa named by Carl Ludwig Willdenow Taxa named by Henry Cranke Andrews