Pickard's wattle facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Pickard's wattle |
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| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Genus: |
Acacia
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| Species: |
pickardii
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| Occurrence data from AVH | |
Pickard's wattle, also called birds nest wattle, is a special kind of tree or shrub. It belongs to the Acacia family, which is a large group of plants. You can find it growing naturally in eastern Australia. This plant is considered a vulnerable species, meaning it needs protection. It is protected under an important Australian law called the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
Contents
What Does Pickard's Wattle Look Like?
This plant can be a shrub or a small tree. It usually grows to be about 3 to 5 metres (9.8 to 16.4 ft) tall. It often looks bushy and can spread out by sending up new shoots from its roots.
Its branches are smooth or slightly rough, and they have small, sharp spines called stipules. These spines are about 5 to 12 mm (0.20 to 0.47 in) long.
Instead of flat leaves, Pickard's wattle has special leaf-like parts called phyllodes. These phyllodes are like thin, round sticks, about 2 to 6.5 cm (0.79 to 2.56 in) long and 1 to 2 mm (0.039 to 0.079 in) wide. They stand up straight and can feel a bit prickly.
The phyllodes have a pointed tip and a small gland at their base. They also have four faint lines running along them.
Flowers and Seeds
Pickard's wattle doesn't have a regular flowering season. It often blooms after it rains, which can happen at different times of the year.
Its flowers grow in round, golden balls. Each flower-head has about 35 to 40 tiny flowers. These flower-heads appear alone or in pairs where the phyllodes meet the stem.
After the flowers bloom, light brown seed pods form. These pods are flat and narrow, growing up to 4 cm (1.6 in) long and 14 mm (0.55 in) wide. They have a net-like pattern on them.
Inside the pods, the seeds are arranged sideways. However, this plant doesn't produce many seeds, and it's rare to see new seedlings growing in the wild.
How Pickard's Wattle is Classified
Scientists group living things into categories, and this is called Taxonomy. Pickard's wattle is closely related to another plant called Acacia cuspidifolia. It also looks a bit like Acacia atrox.
Where Pickard's Wattle Lives
Pickard's wattle is an endemic plant, which means it only grows naturally in a specific area. You can find it in the Sturt Stony Desert in north-eastern South Australia.
It grows from an area called Mount Gason bore, along the Birdsville Track, up to Andado Station in the south-eastern Northern Territory.
This wattle prefers to grow on stony or sandy plains. It likes stony, sandy clay soils. It often grows in scrubland areas alongside other plants like Atriplex and Sclerolaena.
In the Northern Territory, there are three main groups of these plants, with hundreds of individual plants in total. South Australia also has several groups, adding up to hundreds of plants.
