Acacia binervia (Johann Christoph Wendland) James Francis Macbride 1919
(previously known as : Acacia glaucescens Willd.)
Coast Myall
MIMOSACEAE
  
Don Herbison-Evans,
(donherbisonevans@outlook.com)
&
Christine Ashe


Acacia binervia is not one of the knockout wattles with great Wow! factor. It is a much more restrained tree, generally fading into the background of a forest, looking much like the other woodland trees growing in close proximity, until it flowers. Then it is obvious the tree is not a eucalypt.

The specimen photographed here at first appeared to be a Syncarpia glomulifera or Turpentine, which it closely resembles in shape. When it flowered last spring: it finally demonstrated the fact that it was an Acacia. Trying to find which one has been a difficult task but it now appears to be Acacia binervia.


Acacia binervia is an erect spreading tree which can grow quite high, 16 metres or more. The bark is fissured and fibrous, dark brown.


The phyllodes are falcate, (curved like a very fat crescent moon), quite long, 6–15 cm, and very wide in the middle, 5–23 mm. The leaves have a blueish bloom which is more conspicuous from a distance when noticed against other green-leaved trees. Each leaf has many longitudinal veins (usually 3 fairly prominent) and all are closely-spaced. There is a pointy apex to the leaf.


The flowers are lemon rather than yellow and faintly scented. They grow on their own stem (one to 7 flowers) from the axil of the phyllodes. The heads are cylindrical 2 to 6 cm long. The pale version is most often seen, but they can be a bright yellow or, more rarely, almost white as well.


The pods are straight to slightly curved, flat but slightly raised over seeds. They are surprisingly long and skinny compared to the flowers and the leaves.

The tree is common on the east coast, central tablelands and central western slopes of N.S.W. It is usually found in dry open forest or woodland but tolerates a wide range of conditions, including some degree of shade. It is frost resistant. It flowers in Spring. Like many of the Wattles: its seed are attractive to native birds, and the foliage is also claimed as koala food by some sources, however it is also listed as toxic to livestock.

The foliage and flowers are food for a number of Caterpillars, including :

Hypochrysops delicia, LYCAENIDAE

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(updated 1 September 2008)