Acacia cognata

Location & distribution maps

Phylogeny & links to associated information

Wikipedia links:       Angiosperms > Eudicots > Rosids  > Fabales> Fabaceae > Acacia cognata                                 

Other links:     

Plant information 

Common name:               Bower wattle

• Also, river wattle or narrow-leaved bower wattle  

Conservation status:   unknown

Etymology:   

• Borrowed from Latin acacia, from Ancient Greek ἀκακία (akakía) "a thorny Egyptian tree", from ἀκή (akḗ) "point, thorn

•  

Flowers:                  

• The pale yellow globular flower-heads have a diameter of 3 to 6 mm 

• They contain 10 to 25 flowers and appear singly or in pairs in the leaf axils 

• Flowering between July and October in the species' native range

Fruit:                         

• The papery, straight, flat seed pods are slightly raised over seeds 

• With a length of 3 to 10 cm and a width of 2 to 4 mm

Leaves:         

• The green linear to narrowly elliptic phyllodes are slightly curved 

• They have a length of 4 to 10 cm and a width 1 to 3.5 mm 

• The sparsely hairy to glabrous phyllodes have ciliate margins with three main longitudinal veins

Stem & branches:        

• It has smooth, grey or grey-brown coloured bark on the trunk and larger branches

• The branchlets have low longitudinal green to brown coloured ridges that alternate with sticky resinous bands

Roots:         

Habit:        

• It is a tree or shrub 

• It grows typically grows to a height of 0.6 to 10 m

• Has an erect to spreading habit

Habitat:   

• It grows in granite-based soils as part of dry sclerophyll forest communities

Distribution:                  

• Endemic to south eastern Australia

• It is native to the states of NSW and Victoria

Additional notes:     

• Taxonomy

  • The species was first formally described by the botanist Karel Domin in 1926 as part of the work Beitrage zur Flora und Pflanzengeographie Australiens as published in the work Bibliotheca Botanica

  • It was reclassified as Racosperma cognatum in 2003 by Leslie Pedley then transferred back to genus Acacia in 2006

• Cultivation

  • A number of cultivars have been developed:

    • 'Bower Beauty'

    • 'Cousin Itt' (Citation required - cousin It is Casuarina glauca, not an acacia.)

    • 'Copper Tips'

    • 'Fettuccini'

    • 'Green Mist'

    • 'Lime Magik'

    • 'Limelight'

    • 'Mop Top'

    • 'Waterfall'

Sources of information:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acacia_cognata (2023)