Although other bloggers have mentioned Wattles
in their Winter Wednesdays, I couldn't resist
having my own Wattley Wintery Wednesday.
After all one acacia (Acacia pycnantha) is our national floral emblem.
Australia also has 1000 of the world's 1350 species of acacia.
This first one is commonly known as the black wattle
and is everywhere around here.
The globular flowers are small...
about 3 mm/quarter inch in diameter.
In fact each of those little balls is a group of flowers.
When you put a lot of those flowers together you get this!
The Cootamundra wattle
- indigenous to the Cootamundra area in New South Wales,
also does well in Victoria.
It has bluey green ferny foliage and is just finishing flowering.
This one has flat leaf like structures known as phyllodes (actually just flattened stems) rather than leaves and its flowers are pale cream. Did you know there was a purple and a red acacia?
Some acacias have their flowers arranged in cylinders.
Although it is hard to tell from these photos,
these globular flowers are a good centimetre/half inch
in diameter and, as you can see are
on quite a small scrubby little plant.
Acacias make great garden plants
as they come in a wide range of forms
from low growing plants to shrubs and trees.
They grow quickly but their life span is also limited,
in most cases, to about 15 years.
They are now being grown commercially
to provide wood for furniture making and as fire wood.
Aborigines traditionally used the wood for
boomerangs, clubs, spears and shields.
They also used extracts from the leaves
to relieve toothache and for applying
to wounds and burns.
Wattles germinate well after fire
and are often among the first to regenerate.
Some contented Herefords (above)
and Black Angus (below)
enjoying the winter sunshine
with their calves...
with wattle as a backdrop.
Now, you don't have many chances left to join in Winter Wednesdays...in fact only today and next week!
So please write a post about what you enjoy about Winter (no whinging!) with a link to this post.
