Acacia iteaphylla Seeds | Willow Wattle
LATIN NAME: Acacia iteaphylla
COMMON NAME: Willow Wattle, Flinders Range Wattle
Plant Profile
Willow wattle comes from the Flinders Ranges of South Australia, and it looks like a plant built for that country: narrow, blue-green phyllodes that hang like willow leaves, a dense rounded frame, and in late winter a covering of pale lemon flower balls that last for weeks. It is a large shrub or small tree, three to six metres in the ground and often broader than tall, with reddish young stems that darken with age. The phyllodes are not leaves at all but flattened leaf stalks, an adaptation that cuts water loss and lets the plant angle its photosynthetic surface away from the midday sun. In its home range it grows on rocky slopes and creek margins in a winter-rainfall climate, and it has proved adaptable enough to be planted widely in dry temperate gardens. It is fast, frost-hardy once established, and useful where a screen is needed quickly.
Science & Biotechnology
Acacia iteaphylla sits in the Australian acacias, the group that kept the name Acacia after the 2011 Melbourne congress retypified the genus on an Australian species; the African ones became Vachellia and Senna. Its phyllodes are true phyllodes, developed from petioles rather than from laminae, and their vertical orientation is a photoprotective habit shared with many arid-zone wattles. The flowers are held in globular heads of many tiny individual flowers, and the pollen is presented in polyads, bundles of sixteen grains, which is why a single visit can fertilise many ovules and why the breeding system is built around efficient generalist pollinators. Seed is dispersed by ants: each seed carries a fatty aril, an elaiosome, that attracts ants, which carry the seed underground and eat the aril. The seed coat is hard and water-impermeable, and germination in the field follows fire or abrasion.
Uses & Benefits
This is a screening and windbreak plant first of all. It grows quickly, holds foliage to the ground, and takes salt-laden wind, which makes it useful on coastal blocks and along exposed boundaries. The winter flowering is the second reason: few large shrubs flower in the coldest, wettest part of the year, and the pale heads are good in a vase. The dense low canopy shelters small birds, and the seed feeds native pigeons and parrots in Australia. The wood is small in section and useful only for fuel and turnery. Tannin in the bark follows the usual acacia pattern, and gum exudes from wounds, though neither is collected commercially from this species. It fixes nitrogen through rhizobia, which makes it a reasonable nurse plant on poor ground.
Growing from Seed
Treat the seed before sowing: pour near-boiling water over it, leave it to cool overnight, and sow the swollen seeds only. A gritty, sharply drained mix is essential, because this is a plant that dies of root rot in rich, wet compost long before it dies of cold. Sow two or three seeds per pot, cover lightly, and keep at 18 to 24 degrees in full light; germination comes in one to three weeks. Water the seedlings deeply and then let the surface dry. Pot on quickly, because young wattles have vigorous roots and resent restriction. Plant out in autumn in a warm, sunny, well-drained position, stake for the first year, and tip-prune after flowering to keep the frame dense rather than leggy. It is short-lived by tree standards, perhaps fifteen to twenty years.
Our Take
A fast, frost-hardy screen with winter flowers and almost no demands beyond drainage. Plant it where the roots can dry out and prune it after flowering.
Related Reading
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