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Botany The Acacia Grow Thread

Growing logs with advice and results.
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That’s great to hear @Animistic :)

They do germinate quickly.. 2-3 days is normal on moist paper towel.

These Acacia mucronata subs. longifolia were hidden amongst a bunch of similar looking acuminata in one of the trays.. I only realized today how much they have grown in the past month.. stoked! Behind the mucro in the first shot is an interesting form of obtuse with recurved phyllodes.

And some shots of my maidenii which are now at head height and really need to go in the ground.

Just cut most of the big privet trees down and won’t be able to pull the stump out for some time .. I was hoping to plant one or two maidenii in their place. But making good progress getting rid of non native trees that I’ll replace with acacias or other groovy natives.
 

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Nice @acacian, a productive day had then 👍 Your maidenii has unique colouring, very dark looking, almost purple. Your property will be a native haven in no time.

Slightly off topic but I had a great find today! After seeing your oxycedrus, I happened to find one! It also has what I think is Acacia maidenii growing right next to it!? You can see the curly seed pods starting to develop. Oxycedrus is surprisingly prickly with cute little miniature phyllodes. Really happy to find both trees as they aren't overly common where I am.
 

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What a cool find @CheeseCat I'm not really familiar with A. oxycedrus but that does look like a maidenii to me, the anastomization of the phyllodes is gorgeous too!

Peeped in my courtii box and found these <3
 

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Hey @CheeseCat ,

your first tree is not oxycedrus but actually a form of verticillata. Oxycedrus has 3-4 prominent longitudinal nerves and the phyllodes do not occur in those clusters like verticillata. Verticiallata can be variable in phyllode width.. yours being on the slightly broader end of the spectrum but still well within it's taxonomical parameters.

The second tree is (I think) a form of Acacia longifolia .. maidenii has much finer vein anastomoses.

Oh and the purple colour of my maidenii is just it's defence in the cold. Its common for plants to go purple in cold and is due to sugars building up in the tips of the leaves which eventually spread. Not a sign of alkaloids as you might think.
 
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@acacian I'm kinda embarrassed (probably the wrong word but still lol) I didn't instantly go longifolia now you've said it. Its only one of the most ubiquitous acacia on the east coast lol. I get thrown when thinking of acacias being overseas lol.
 
Well I'd like to see some more shots of the suspected maidenii actually.. I edited my post to say (I think) longifolia. But the shape of the phyllodes and venation doesn't look right to me for maidenii. Longifolia can sometimes have those less leathery and darker phyllodes. And the nerve arrangement is pretty classic longifolia.. which also finished flowering recently (earlier in NZ if i recall). Pods will help too.
 
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Aww, damn. So close! I wondered if I was being a bit hasty with my ID. There's so many subtitles to these trees. I often wonder if the reason people have had unsuccessful results with floribunda is mostly just a case of misidentification. There's a lot of floribunda look-a-likes that I've come across, particularly in the broader phyllode category.

That second tree is quite different to all the other longifolia I have seen which is why I considered the possibility that it might be something else. It just has a different look to it, I think it's the shape of the phyllodes and density.

Fascinating about the sugars and cold, your knowledge continues to blow my mind! 🤯
 
Animistic said:
What a cool find @CheeseCat I'm not really familiar with A. oxycedrus but that does look like a maidenii to me, the anastomization of the phyllodes is gorgeous too!

Peeped in my courtii box and found these <3
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Awesome! They're coming along nicely. How long did they take to sprout? I think I'm going to try the paper towel method now too
 
@CheeseCat

4 days since overnight soaking.

@acacian

You can see the immature pods on the plant, they look a lot more twisty than longifolia that I know. The phyllodes are really interesting, they struct me as obtusifolia for a split second in 5.jpg but aren't obtusi obviously.

5.jpg definitely looks like longifolia to me except the twisty immature pods on it because from memory var. longifolia tend to be straight.

I get what you mean @CheeseCat re the density of the growth. I'm used to seeing longifolia more sparsely foliated (if that is even a word/the right word).

Could it be a cross? Either way it is an interesting acacia, I'd be curious if it had alkaloids, has the right look to me.
 
@Animistic they do look more twisted but are still very young so will be hard to know. I very well might be wrong on this one though.. I also missed the middle photo which I do think looks different in some ways to longifolia and is now causing me to doubt my initial diagnoses.. but I have seen a form of longifolia that is quite similar to that too.

Yeah picture 5 was the one that really prompted me to think longifolia due to phyllode shape and vein structure. But the more I look at the other two shots the more I suspect it could in fact be maidenii. The flowers also maybe are a little sparse for longifolia. CheeseCat, maybe you could take some more photos and pop them on the acacia identification thread? The other thing is maidenii near me is forming pods at the moment.

For now I think I you should dismiss my initial longifolia diagnoses and have a closer look. Clearer pictures will help to assess fine details.
 
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Yeah it's a weird one that's for sure. I feel like even in immature seed pods I still see their final shape early on. I'll have to pay more attention to it, it's a good time of year to do so. Maidenii blooms earlier than longifolia, which would show seed pods earlier. Some longifolia around here is still flowering but NZ is likely different as you say.

@CheeseCat
As I said I would before, I've attached a photo of how much seed coat I take off with a nail file.
 

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Yes maidenii does bloom earlier than longifolia, although I do recall see longifolia flowering quite earlier than Australlia from one of CheeseCat's previous posts on the forum. I am leaning more towards maidenii now.
 
I’ll try and get some more photos and a video in the next few days. Hoping it’s some kind of active. NZ longifolia is definitely starting to come to the end of its flowering stage now. From memory this particular tree flowered very early, perhaps around may? I’ll keep an eye on the seed pods and will post an update. There's still a few floribunda flowering but they are in the last stages too.

Brilliant, thanks @Animistic... so just a very light scathe then. I’m aiming to start scarification this week. Need to do a bit of research on the paper towel method first.
 
Just put the first lot of brother wattle seeds in a tray. Just roughly 1 part coir to 2 parts decomposed granite.

I also got the last batch of my brother wattle seeds out from scarification/cold soak and into paper towel world.

The floribunda I'm going to put straight into tubestock very soon.
 

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Any other eastern aussies getting these winds? My plants are getting absolutely smashed. Really having to stay on top of watering atm... almost lost a 1.5m phlebo and have lost a few floribunda. The joys of having potted plants sitting around the garden..

Trying to get as many in as possible atm.. next to go in will be another obtuse, flori, caroleae, NP acuminata, cardiophylla, and mucronata. Very fortunate to have so much garden space to work with! Its going to be a wattle sanctuary in a few years. Fun observation.. about the only bird I get in my garden is the wattle bird - which loves the grevilleas.. there were no acacias planted before I moved in though. As sentimental as I'd like to get here I think its more to do with the fact that wattle birds can give other birds a bit of a hard time. Maybe they just want to protect the Acacias to come.

Noticed some of the younger foliage on one of my planted floribundas is going yellow and falling off in the heavy winds and the newer foliage is remaining. Not too concerned as it's clearly the more juvenile narrower phyllodes yellowing and dropping - but I'll be keeping a very close eye.

Have your latest batch of brother germed yet? They seem to germinate readily.. seems like an easy one to grow. Surprised they've survived winter up here.. of my 30 brothers none have died. Some have browned at the tips but all are still kicking.
 
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I'm not getting serious winds, a bit windy at times but nothing remotely worrying.

Yeah I reckon by the sounds of it you'll be alright.

Where you are is pretty cold in winter but I've heard of people growing them in Tassie absolutely no issue. Also a friend of mine down south of me grows them on a property inland and they've been hit by frost, first season they didn't cope very well but now they're loving it.

This morning when I checked 4 had started popping up. The rest of them I will plant out tomorrow when I get home. I'm sure they will be all sprouted, they very readily germed. Some literally germed 1 day after an 18hr soak.
 
Great news @Animistic :)

I think the majority of acacias are much tougher than they are sometimes given credit for. I'm growing a couple sub tropical rainforest species and they and Acacia colei were ironically some of the least affected during this winter. This winter was quite mild I'll add.. but still. Plenty of -0 degree nights. Spring has come early this year.. usually would keep getting frosts most of September! My fire hasn't been going in 2 weeks now.
 
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