Which Acacia

Milled this today and was asked by a visitor what species it is. My quick reply was Acacia Dunnoa which is true as I really did not know. This caused me to get on the net and try to fill in this void in my knowledge of the timber that grows in my locality. I looked for a species native to SEQ, short lived, grows to about 15 metres and has a dark hard bark. I quickly discovered there is about 900 species of Acacia, half of which have the common name Black Wattle. After narrowing it down I have come to the conclusion that this timber is from Acacia Implexa which has the common name Lightwood or Hickory Wattle which both sound a bit classier than stinking #%&$ black wattle which is what it's usually called around here. So over to the experts, am I right or am I barking up the wrong tree. Attachment 459516 Attachment 459516

Baron, id'ing the wattles is a job for experts! As you found, there are hundreds of species, and even in a small area there can be half a dozen species, with quite subtle features that differentiate one from another. We have a couple of acres of old farmland & there are at least 4 species growing on or immediately adjacent to our property. I have tentatively identified a couple using a fairly crude key, but I wouldn't go to court on either! The shape & number of veins in the phyllodes are an initial guide, but you need flowers and seed pods for a positive id.

A. implexa is common in our area, & comparing your wood sample to what I believe is that species round here, I think you are on the money, but within what I'm sure are the same species, I've found huge variation in colour and grain patterns in the wood, so I reckon it's the lest reliable guide to species....

Cheers,

Thanks Ian, I agree with everything you said. Having finally found my copy of Ashley Sewells book Australian Timbers, how it ended up in the workshop and parts manuals section of the bookcase is beyond me, I have had to rethink my identification. As this bloke is a Sunshine Coast resident and some of the photos in his book I could identify as being almost in my backyard I am now leaning towards Acacia disparrima [Brown Salwood] or Acacia melanoxylon [Blackwood], I just have to wait till they flower and than things may be clearer or not. I am probably wasting my time trying to get an accurate identification because as soon as I memorise the name some boffin will change it or decide its not even an Acacia after all. I suppose once you've described most of the species in the country the only way to stay employed is to start again and rename everything.

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Originally Posted by THE BARON

...... I am probably wasting my time trying to get an accurate identification because as soon as I memorise the name some boffin will change it or decide its not even an Acacia after all. I suppose once you've described most of the species in the country the only way to stay employed is to start again and rename everything.

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:U I know how you feel - I kept having to re-learn the Latin names of bacteria & plants involved in various veterinary diseases throughout my working life. I do appreciate how important it is to have accurate identification of such things, but it can still be irritating. Apart from the more cynical view that it's just self-justification by the taxonomists (one which I confess to expressing myself, in moments of frustration!) one of the main causes of major re-assignment of things over the last 20-30 years has been our increasing ability to compare genomes, which is,after all, the true basis of relationships.

Anyways, it's both fun & potentially useful to make a positive id when you can - just keep an eye out for those flowers & fruits. I'm waiting for a wattle in the neighbor's yard to flower for the same reason. He wanted a very old wattle that was leaning over at a crazy angle taken down, so I fired up the saw & obliged today. It was about 300mm diameter at the base, and a bit rotten for the first 400mm or so, but above that some lovely dark & possibly finely-fiddlebacked wood, so several chunks have gone under my house as potential chair legs & spindles rather than onto his 'cooking' pile (he loves his camp-oven cookups). But I have no idea which species it is, I've not taken any notice of it before, not being 'my' tree. Luckily, there is an almost identical tree beside it which is still healthy, so when it gets around to producing some flowers & seeds I might be able to nail it. The main reason I want to know is that I've turned wood from about a dozen trees from around the yard now, and some was lovely to turn & some were absolute dogs. If I could pin down which species are more likely to be the dogs, I could save myself a deal of trouble by sending those directly to the neighbor's burning pile...

Cheers,