Wallangarra Wattle

Description:

Spring is the season when wattle explodes into life, and everywhere you look is vivid yellow. For most of the year these trees and shrubs are bland and uneventful, but when flowering, they completely transform the Australian bush. Wallangarra Wattle grows as an erect or spreading shrub or tree to a height ranging from 2.5–14 metres. Long narrow phyllodes* to 15 cm tend to droop, seen clearly in the second photo. Very floriferous, golden ball flowers in late winter and early spring. This is a very hardy species that is well-adapted to extremes. Native to the tablelands of southern Queensland and northern New South Wales, it can tolerate extremes of frost, snow, drought, flood, and fire. Wattle is a quintessential Australian plant.

Habitat:

Rural property by a freshwater dam. Naturally-seeded plants growing in native bushland area. Mostly granite soils in this region.

Notes:

*Phyllodes are modified petioles or leaf stems, which are leaf-like in appearance and function. In some plants, these become flattened and widened, while the leaf itself becomes reduced or vanishes altogether. Thus the phyllode comes to serve the purpose of the leaf.... They are common in the genus Acacia, especially the Australian species. (Wikipedia)