Acacia pycnantha

Golden Wattle (Acacia pycnantha) is Australia's floral emblem. It is a tree which flowers in late winter and spring, producing a mass of fragrant, fluffy, golden flowers.

The species grows to between 2 and 8 metres in height with generally smooth, dark brown to grey bark. The mature trees do not have true leaves but have long, sickle-shaped phyllodes.

These are shiny and dark green and are between 8 and 20 cm long and 0.5 to 3.5 cm wide. The rounded inflorescences are bright yellow and occur in axillary racemes or terminal panicles in groupings of between 4 and 23.

These are followed by flattish, straight or slightly curved pods which are 5 to 14 cm long and 0.5 to 0.8 cm wide.

Acacia pycnantha was first formally described by botanist George Bentham in the London Journal of Botany in 1842. The type specimen was collected by the explorer Thomas Mitchell from the interior of New South Wales.

The specific epithet pycnantha is derived from the Greek words pyknos (dense) and anthos (flowers), a reference to the dense cluster of flowers that make up the globular inflorescences.



Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Wattle



See Also: flowers melbourne, flowers sydney, Floral