Acacias...

It is that time of the year again when the acacia begin to flower. We know it is late winter, and the yellow cheers us up as we go for our daily walks in the scrub in the loacl parks. The acacia seem to be in better humour than they were last year, perhaps because this winter has been colder and a lot wetter than the last. A couple of weeks ago it snowed less than 5km from this park, and for the benefit of northerners, that is very unusual. The eqivalent would be 45C in London. I think this is acacia dealbata, the silver wattle.

The odd thing about this flowering there are very few nectar eating birds about, especially the small ones. The park is called Bellbird Dell, and the bird it is named after are very aggressive and hunt out weaker less aggressive birds. They have, however, a beautiful song with a very pure tone.

I was on my way to the tram station when I saw these trees, and stopped to photograph them.

Notice the colour of the pool under this tree. This is storm water from the park and from neighbouring streets. In summer any remaining water will develope an algal bloom.

These trees seem to flower later the further south one goes. In the northern reaches of the State they would have been in blossom a month before these photos were taken-2 weeks ago-and will flower later in the higher, colder country. The Australian Alps are under a metre of snow at the moment, so it will be October before the acacia flower there.

Close up of the blossom. These flowers have quite as sweet scent. If you are asthmatic, don't stick your nose anywhere near this. Most Australian flowering plants are great pollinators and some people believe them to be highly allergenic. The pollen is fairly heavy so is not usually carried on the wind, unlike grasses, rye grass is a particularly nasty grass, and so gets up one's nose with some difficulty. Not being allergic to anything, I like acacia, and I like particularly the idea of a movement of yellow across the countryside as the flowering front moves south.

The trunk of these trees is slightly rough, but also quite tough. The bark is thin, and was often used for tanning leather, the timber is useful though not much used.