''Acacia neriifolia'', also known as the oleander wattle,
silver wattle
[ or pechy wattle,]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 north eastern Australia. It is common in the Moonbi Ranges.
Description
The evergreen tree or shrub typically grows to a height of and a width of up to .[
It often has an erect to spreading habit with flattened or angled branchlets towards the apices. The branchlets are finely haired with silvery white hairs that can be yellowish on young shoots and are often covered in a fine white powder. 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 silvery-green coloured phyllodes have amore or less linear to narrowly elliptic shape and are straight or slightly curved. The phyllodes are around in length and wide and covered in fine hairs and have a prominent midvein.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 in groups of 8 to 20 on an axillary raceme along an axis of . The spherical flower-heads have a diameter of and contain 20 to 40 yellow to bright yellow flowers. Following flowering thinly leathery, flat 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 slightly curved with a length of and a width of .[
]
Distribution
The plant 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 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_ ...
and 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 ...
. It is found in New South Wales on the eastern tablelands and slopes of the Great Dividing Range
The Great Dividing Range, also known as the East Australian Cordillera or the Eastern Highlands, is a cordillera system in eastern Australia consisting of an expansive collection of mountain ranges, plateaus and rolling hills, that runs rough ...
, from around Tamworth and Barradine in the south extending north into Queensland. It is often found among granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
outcrops as a part of dry sclerophyll forest
Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaves, short internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem) and leaf orientation which is parallel or oblique to direct ...
and woodland communities.[
]
Cultivation
In gardens it is useful as shade tree or as an informal screen that grows in full sun or part shade and is drought
A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...
tolerant.[
]
See also
* List of ''Acacia'' species
References
Australian Broadcasting Corporation, ABC New England North West NSW, Monday, 19 August 2002 - Aussie natives in your garden - Acacia neriifolia
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070927200024/http://users.nsw.chariot.net.au/~bpyallaroo/Acacia_neriifolia.htm Photograph
{{Taxonbar, from=Q4670973
neriifolia
Flora of New South Wales
Flora of Queensland