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Help with Acacia Identification

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Hi there, I think I may be looking at a maidenii but I am not entirely sure...any input would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers

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Are the square/triangular stems mainly concerned with longifolia?

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longifolia

 

Thanks...for future's sake, what would you say is the clearest way for me to discern between a longifolia and maidenii?

Cheers

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SE

 

Sorry but a link to the search page is hardly useful.

I have certainly done some searching before I posted here. Its not my intention to just get the answers given to me, but rather to acquire the knowledge in order to be able to identify plants on my own. For a beginner like myself its hard to know where to start when there are so many species of acacia, many of which look almost identical to the untrained eye.

I can infer some differences from the photos and descriptions of both plants I have encountered. However I'm hesitant to rely simply on what I have deduced since my knowledge is limited. I have seen pictures where maidenii leaves look longer and more slender than longifolia but I have also seen pictures where they look a lot closer. Poor quality and possibly inaccurate photos, its hard for me to tell. Also a lot of pictures of longifolia have darker flowers than the ones I have photographed which adds to my confusion. And to add to things I'm not really sure about the level of intra-strain variability in these plants.

Is the phyllode size the most telling factor here? Is there some other characteristic that is also indicative?

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i think it is useful. i didn't mean it as a slurr. i didn't really know how to explain what you asked & seeing as i already commented in the thread i figured i'd help by directing you towards where this has been discussed before.. but maidenii usually has soft creamy yellow flowers while longifolia bright yellow but longifolia can have very light flowers too.. especcially when all the pollen has dropped... phyllodes are similar though maidenii often show more of a curve & they can vary in size & the way the bunches of phyllodes sit as they hang splayed from the ends of the branches.. the over all habit of maidenii vs longfolia is really different too.. longifolia forms more of ball shaped bushy appearance while maidenii tends to grow a longer trunk upwards & can eventually get quite big & live longer than longifolia.. i've seen maidenii's growing under huge blue gums, that are 20m tall with relatively thin trunks with only a little bit of foliage at the top reaching for any light it could get & i've seen maidenii's that are ancient in terms of most acacia lifespans that form the main canopy in a coastal rainforest gully's with huge fat trunks & big narled old branches covered in epiphytes & vines..

the bark on maidenii's that are not juvinile is thicker & kind of grey & it tends to split along the vertical line as it grows so all around the trunk theres little splits in the bark about a 2cm (or whatever.. it's random) apart.. maidenii usually likes rainforest margins & generally a bit wetter kind of position... & longfolia prefers a more open less moist environment.. it's kind of one of those things though, once you find one in it's natural environment you'll know what maidenii country smells like...

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looks like Acacia leiocalyx (Early Flowering Black Wattle) to me... this species is fairly common around Brisbane and flowers at this time of the year...

phyllodes look fairly broad for Acacia longifolia in the first shot?...

Edited by volcanicplug

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looks like Acacia leiocalyx (Early Flowering Black Wattle) to me... this species is fairly common around Brisbane and flowers at this time of the year...

 

i don't know that species.. is it native to se qld?

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is native to SEQ and fairly common in dry Eucalypt forests on poorer soils... often grows alongside Acacia concurrens (Late Flowering Black Wattle) which flowers slightly later and has leaves with a greyish sheen...

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Pretty sure its not longifolia. These things started to flower all over SE QLD about 2 or 3 weeks ago which is too early for longifolia.

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definitely agree on the call of Acacia leiocalyx.. looks like it's definitely part of the Phyllodineae group which is well interesting also :)

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Thanks for the extra information paradox, I genuinely appreciate it.

It does indeed seem like Acacia leiocalyx...it has a reddish tinge to the newer branches and the phyllodes look very similar to those shown in photos. For reference there are many of these trees found growing in hilly natural bushland near Brisbane city. There also appears to be some Queensland Silver Wattle (Acacia podalyriifolia) growing nearby.

Thanks for the help!

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looks like Acacia leiocalyx (Early Flowering Black Wattle) to me... this species is fairly common around Brisbane and flowers at this time of the year...

phyllodes look fairly broad for Acacia longifolia in the first shot?...

 

agreed.

Leiocalyx is planted by government organizations in reveg areas etc heavily around SE-QLD (particularly Gold Coast and Brisbane). i actually have a few hundred seeds on me. First thing to check when identifying IMO if you are unsure between a few is to check the flowering timeframes. This generally helps to make an ID positive ;) although i often fail in making definitive IDs this is one key point that has helped me the few times i HAVE made a positive id.

Also Podalyriifolia grow rampant on the gold coast, i would go as far as to call them a weedy species, We get a similar species up where i have just moved too (wide bay area) which has the same leaf styles but they are much narrower and a fraction longer. Had a mental blank of the name but i think i brought it up in one of my previous ID threads. They are far less weedy from what i have heard (if you are looking at ornamental cultivation)

edit: i think the one i am talking about is A. cultriformis will have to go have another look to confirm though hard to ID from the pictures in my head lol

Edited by DarkSpark

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Leiocalyx is planted by government organizations in reveg areas etc heavily around SE-QLD (particularly Gold Coast and Brisbane).

 

Ahh this makes sense as they seem to be growing in a definite line across the face of a hill rather than randomly around the place.

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for future reference as well mate in these areas these are the most widely used plants and good ones to research straight up if they don't quite match the plants with goodies in em ;)

- A. Disparrima

- A. Fimbriata

- A. Melanoxylon

- A. Leiocalyx

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wapedia a wiki for Acacia

maybe a mod will pin this link for future references

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cool link. Shame it doesn't have search functions or the ability to load in a more easily viewable format... Scrolling through that list is quite tedious i mean sure i can ctrl + s but if i knew the name i wouldn't be searching for it :P Lots of pretty pictures though :)

The pics are nice and clear though which i like. With a bit of work it could be a heck of a good resource ! When the pics are used alongside the detailed descriptions on the ANBG site or similar it could make things nice and easy. Although from what i read in the footer and from the look of the site it appears as though a Scalper was run to extract info from wikipedia ? i may be wrong though.

edit: ooooh its like a phone version of wikipedia. no wonder it is setup like it is :P silly me

Edited by DarkSpark

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