Scientific Name: Acacia melanoxylon

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  • Pronunciation:
    ah-KAY-sha mel-ah-NOCKS-ah-lon
  • Common Name:
    Blackwood
  • Derivation:
    Acacia: Gr. akakia - to sharpen (first species described had short, pointed leaves)
  • Type:
    Tree
  • Family:
    MIMOSACEAE
  • Flowers:
    Summer,cream, balls in axillary racemes
  • Fruit:
    Pod irregularly coiled
  • Vegetation Type:
    Wet Eucalypt Forest
  • Species List:
    EdingtonDr, Craft, Bush food, Coolum High, Pomona School Oval, Noosa High School, Mill Point, Johns, Stratford Park, Janet, Cranks Creek, Batianoff 87, NNS, Leslie Drive Roundabout, TAFE, Noosa Banks, Kin Kin Scrub, Dandaloo, BHNR, Upper Yandina Creek, Heritage Park, Wallace Park,
Cultural Notes

Cabinet timber - slower growing trees in southern Australia produce dark, strong, hard timber that polishes to a high gloss and is figured with beautifully striped, almost chequered pattern (Nicholson)||Bush medicine: Bathe in bark infusion to relieve rhumatism||Acacia species - Many wattle species have gum that exudes from their stems and trunks. The pale gums can be sucked like candy or soaked in water as jelly.||Source of fibre.||Bush food: gum eaten, seeds eaten ground - highly nutritious.||Twigs and bark may have been used as a fish poison?||

Identification Notes

Leaves: warty with 5 veins-||Flowers: balls in axillary racemes||Fruit: coiled and tangled seed pods release shiny black seeds that hang on a long, double-folded thread.||

Associated Fauna

Butterfly laval food plant: Tailed Emperor and Imperial Hairstreak (Common Imperial Blue), pictured.|| Bird attracting: All acacia plants attract birds. Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo eat larvae of wood -boring insects.||Older trees provide useful nesting hollows.

Landscaping Notes

Noosa Council Preferred Species list||Rapid growth make it useful for protecting more sensitive plants.||Successfully propagated by Coolum Community Native Nursery||Successfully propagated by Tin Can Bay City Farm||Successfully propagated by Florabunda Bushcare nursery, Woombye|Successfully propagated by Mooloolah Native Nursery||Successfully propagated by Barung Landcare||