Acacia decurrens

The green wattle is a special type of flowering plant.

It belongs to a large family of plants called Fabaceae. This plant is native to New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. It grows well in forests, woodlands, and near river banks. Many people call it the black wattle or Sydney green wattle. It is a very important plant in its home lands.

This plant grows as a tall shrub or a tree. It can reach a height of up to 10 meters. The bark is greyish black or black and can be smooth. The leaves are dark green and have a feathery look. They are bipinnate, which means they have many small parts. These leaves have tiny ridges that run down to the stem. This is why its name, decurrens, means "running down."

Scientists have studied this plant for a long time. A German botanist named Johann Christoph Wendland first described it in 1798. He called it Mimosa decurrens. Later, in 1806, Carl Ludwig Willdenow gave it the name Acacia decurrens. In 2003, a botanist named Les Pedley tried a new name for it. He called it Racosperma decurrens, but most people still use the original name. This shows how scientists keep updating what they know.

There are many interesting facts about how this tree lives. The tree can live for 15 to 50 years. It produces bright yellow flowers in round heads. These flowers contain a compound called kaempferol that gives them color. The seeds are dark brown or black. Ants and birds help spread these seeds to new places. The seeds can even grow very fast after a bushfire happens.

This tree is useful to both people and animals. Some caterpillars, like the imperial hairstreak, eat the leaves for food. Even sulphur-crested cockatoos eat the unripe seeds. People can use the flowers to make fritters or yellow dye. The tree also makes a sticky gum that can help make fruit jelly. In Australia, the Dharawal people have stories about this tree. They used its flowers to know when the cold winds were ending.