Northern limit of a.obtusifolia

[Dirty Old Man]

Hi, was wondering if anyone could tell me ho far north they have found a.obtusifolia.

I have seen obtusifolias growing in northern NSW but after several hikes through stateforests around Brisbane I haven't come across a single one. Does it extend this far north?

[Rev]

Not to my knowledge which is based on conversations with those quite interested in the plant

The heartlands are further south and there are several forms

can i please cuation anyone AGAINST revelaiing specific site localities online

there is too much abuse potential

ive collected seed from the places i know of and am growing them in the garden with a view to making any seed publicly available.

its not hard to grow people - no harder than a maidenii or a longifolia. we dont need to take it from the wild.

[Dirty Old Man]

Hi Rev,

Thanks for the reply.

I agree with you advising people not to list specific locations.

The way I see it if people really want to find these tree's in their environment they need to invest the time and energy to find them and learn how to identify them.

This probably eliminates most people with less than honourable intentions or those interested in exploitation. They usually run out of patience.

I still would like to learn more about the geographical range of this species.

From my research the northern most report of obtusifolia is Tugun on the Gold Coast. Does this sound right?

[AndyAmine.]

are they the ones with red tips on new foliage? I havent hunted Acacia in years.

Im sure I found some about 30 mins south of Esk.

[The Tinkerer]

I spent a few months checking around the Central Coast area(between Sydney and Newcastle)without much luck. I thought they originated in the Blue Mountains, and spread up North. It makes sense they should be in the area unless I have missed them.

[planthelper]

an old timberget'ers trick is to look for trees when they flower, as it make's the job much, much easier! unless you have been shown the right tree, i doubt you would spot an obtusifolia even if you are standing next to it...

obtusifolias are more majestic looking than other accacias,another feature is, that there branches mostly jump out with a 60 degree angle from the main trunk.

if you spend a lot of time in the forrest you will find evantually dead and fallen over obtusifolias...

[ 22. June 2005, 10:18: Message edited by: planthelper ]

[AndyAmine.]

I agree PlantHelper, waiting until flowering was one of the only ways I had much success find the various kinds I was looking for. that and looking at the difence between young and old phyllodes.

Espesialy whhen in in places like Northern NSW where there are lots of difernt kinds all mixed up and in great abundance.... it blew me away when I first started.. I spent LOTS of time in the library looking up reffernces, pictures and photocopying.

[ 23. June 2005, 12:23: Message edited by: AndyAmine. ]

[Dirty Old Man]

I agree that flowers do help a lot in ID but the presence or absence of flowers can also be used to rule out certain species from an attempted ID.

e.g. If a plant is flowering right now it obviously isn't a obtusifolia.

In my first few months of acacia exploring I found it nearly impossible to ID anything but the most distinctive plants like a.complanata or a.podarylifolia, but after a while I got the hang of it and now feel that I can now easily and confidently identify species such as maidenii or obtusifolia.

Often I bump into a freaky hybrid or plant of different growth morphology that gets me stumped.

[Rev]

Dom:

Often I bump into a freaky hybrid or plant of different growth morphology that gets me stumped.

LOL

you and everyone else!

plenty outside the square out there!

[folias]

There are obtusifolias in south east queensland...but nowhere obvious!

Julian.

[MetalHurlant]

We have plenty of acacias of all sorts in WA, the leaves of the podalyriifolia seems to be the go....

[Dirty Old Man]

MetalHurlant:

We have plenty of acacias of all sorts in WA, the leaves of the podalyriifolia seems to be the go....

????

Off topic but to the best of my knowledge podalyrifolia contains no actives. It does apparently contain tryptamine though which may have other uses.

Julian,

In your experience do obtusifolia's extend significantly into SE QLD, or are they pretty much confined to the border ranges and Gold Coast?

There are places that I haven't checked north west of Brisbane that closely resemble places in northern NSW where I have seen them growing.

Dom

[AndyAmine.]

As I mentioned in an above post, Ive found large ammounts of Obtusifolia about 30 mins south of Esk. I will leave the location to your imagination.

For those that dont know where Esk is, its about 1hr Nth of Brisbane.

[Dirty Old Man]

Thanks for the info Andy.

That means they go much further north than what I had thought.

Are you still coming to the meet on the 2nd?

If you are it would be nice to catch up and talk.