Acacia mearnsii

Acacia mearnsii

Acacia mearnsii, Acacia melanoxylon as sometimes also referred to as Black wood acacia, a species of plant in the genus Acacia (Acacia ). It is native to Australia, but today it is widespread.

Features

Acacia mearnsii is a large shrub to tree, plant height reaches up to 15 meters. The bark is smooth and greenish to blackish. The branches are hairy somewhat edgy and tight. The leaves are olive green to dark green pinnate and double. The petiole is 10 to 50 mm long, hairy and bears one to several glands. The rachis is 40 to 150 mm long and hairy. The sheet consists of 8 to 25 pair of pinnae 1st order, each 20 to 60 mm long. On them are 16 to 70 pair of leaflets second order, which are oblong, hairy on the upper side glabrous, underside and at the edges. The leaflets are 1-5 mm long, 0.5 to 0.8 mm wide and straight. Young leaves are golden yellow to yellow-green.

The inflorescence consists of 20-40 pale yellow flowers that are in globular heads. The peduncle is thick, golden haired and 5 to 8 mm long. These heads are in grapes and panicles. The flowers have a calyx with short tops and bare cloth. The petals are bald, hairy the ovary.

The legume is straight, 3-18 cm long and 4-9 mm thick. She is dark haired and fine.

Dissemination

Acacia mearnsii species is native to Australia. It comes from Northeast Tasmania over the south of Victoria to the south of New South Wales to north Sydney. In South Australia it occurs. In other areas of New South Wales, it is naturalized, where she has become independent of roadside plantings from.

It grows in open eucalyptus forests and Woodlands and is found mainly on dry, difficult soils.

Acacia mearnsii is now naturalized in North and South America, Asia, Europe and the Pacific. The species is outside their area of origin often than invasive neophyte, which represents a massive threat to the indigenous ecosystems. The South African Working for Water program is aimed, among other things, the removal of these species because it has a negative effect on the water balance and the indigenous plant diversity. Thus, it competes with the indigenous vegetation, reduced the native biodiversity and beyond leads to a loss of water in riparian buffer strips. This is the reason why Acacia mearnsii is counted in the Global Invasive Species Database harmful invasive alien species to the hundred world.

Use

From the bark tannins are recovered for leather tanning. The wood is used for the production of charcoal and paper. The trees were also planted to reduce soil erosion.