Acacia longifolia
Environmental Weed (2024)
Common names
Sydney golden wattle
Biostatus
Exotic
Category
Vascular
Structural class
Trees & Shrubs - Dicotyledons
Flower colours
Cream, Yellow
Detailed description
Shrub or small tree, twigs sharply angled, glabrous or sparsely hairy. Leaves reduced to phyllodes, phyllodes narrowly elliptic to obovate, symmetric or slightly curved up to 130 x 22mm, with 2 prominent veins. Inflorescence is a spike of pale to golden yellow flowers. Seed pod straight or slightly curved, up to 120 x 4mm.
Similar taxa
Very similar to A. sophorae, but A. sophorae has wider phyllodes and very contorted pods. Also similar to A. floribunda but this species has much narrower phyllodes.
Habitat
Shrubland, coastal areas, dry banks and river beds.
Conservation status
Not applicable
Detailed taxonomy
Family
Fabaceae
Ecology
Flowering
July, August
Year naturalised
1897
Origin
E. Australia
Reason for introduction
Ornamental
Tolerances
Tolerates frost, extended dry periods, and salt spray.
Life cycle
Perennial; huge quantities of seed are produced, estimated viability of about 50 years. Widely planted as an ornamental. Seeds dispersed locally by wind and gravity
Other information
Etymology
acacia: Derived from Greek ‘akazo’ to sharpen, meaning point; spine or thorn.
longifolia: Long leaf
Environmental Weed (2024)
This plant is named in a list of 386 environmental weeds in New Zealand 2024 prepared by DOC. 759 candidate species were considered for inclusion on this new comprehensive list of environmental weeds in New Zealand. The species considered were drawn from published lists of weed species, lists of plants that must be reported or managed by law if observed, existing national and regional programmes and agreements for pest management, and species already managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC). Candidate species were then assessed to see if they were fully naturalised and whether they have more than minor impacts in natural ecosystems. Read the full report here.
NVS code
The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.
ACALON