Sooty wattle facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Sooty wattle
Scientific classification
Genus:	Acacia
Species:	fuscaneura
Occurrence data from AVH

The sooty wattle (scientific name: Acacia fuscaneura) is a type of tree. It belongs to a large group of plants called Acacia, also known as wattles. This tree naturally grows in the dry, central parts of Australia.

What Sooty Wattle Looks Like

This tree can grow quite tall, reaching up to 14 metres (46 ft) (about 46 feet) high. Its young branches are covered in thick hairs, which hide the small ridges on them.

The sooty wattle has special leaves called phyllodes. These are straight, flat, and stay green all year round. They are about 8 centimetres (3.1 in) (3 inches) long and 13 millimetres (0.51 in) (half an inch) wide. When they are young, these phyllodes are also covered in hair.

The tree blooms in early summer, usually in November and December. It produces single, yellow flowerheads that look like long cylinders. After the flowers, dark brown seed pods grow. These pods can sometimes have a purplish color. The seeds inside usually have narrow wings.

The sooty wattle looks very similar to two other wattle trees: the Acacia aneura and the Acacia paraneura.

How Sooty Wattle Got Its Name

Scientists called botanists first officially described this tree in 2012. The botanists who named it were Bruce Maslin and J.E.Reid. They wrote about it in a scientific paper called A taxonomic revision of Mulga (Acacia aneura and its close relatives: Fabaceae) in Western Australia. This paper was published in a journal named Nuytsia.

Sometimes, plants can have other names that were used before. For the sooty wattle, two older names are known as synonyms: Acacia aneura var. fuliginea and Racosperma aneurum var. fuligineum.

Where Sooty Wattle Grows

In Western Australia, you can find the sooty wattle spread out across a large area. It grows in regions like the Wheatbelt, Mid West, and Goldfields. It also grows in the inland parts of South Australia.