Plant an Acacia now and enjoy its shade next year
Life in Australia without Acacia’s would be pretty bleak. These fast growing, soil improving, carbon collecting, fast food outlets for fauna, well and truly get the ecological ball rolling in all of Australia’s many and varied ecosystems. We have close to 1000 species of Acacia in Australia, they are our floral emblem and also the inspiration behind the “Green and Gold”.
In spite of this Acacias are a very misunderstood genus, much maligned for their tendency to grow too quick and thus be a weed in the paddock, or their tendency to fall down after 10-25 years of phenomenal growth in the garden.
These apparently negative traits in the eyes of colonial Australia, are in fact the wattle trees niche in the greater scheme of things. They have evolved to take advantage of disturbance or even catastrophe (such as wildfire). What we must learn to do, is to harness the tremendous vegetative energy of the wattle and as land managers allow them to heal and improve soils, halt erosion and create ecological diversity. It’s time that we see their phenomenally quick growth, leaf litter and all that dead and rotting wood, for the great benefits they can present us with.
Acacias belong to the Mimosaceae family and are a legume. Legumes supply a nice cosy home in nodules on their roots for specific bacteria that convert nitrogen present in the air into a form the acacia can use as food. This gives Acacias the edge in colonising degraded nutrient impoverished soils.
All Acacias produce a bean like pod that is ripe when it dries and then splits. The seeds are also like beans but smaller black or brown and very hard. Please don’t be tempted to test this hardness with your teeth the seed will win.