hi all, i dont have a camera to upload any pics yet, but i have suspicions that two trees i found today are acacia obtusifolia. they have all the characteristics of obtusifolia.... LOTS of red colouring all over the stem and edges of the leaves. the same shaped leaves and the same cylindrical flowering colons. these are the first acacia's of their kind that i have noticed around my neighbourhood (from what i have seen acacia floribunda, acacia melanoxyn, acacia pycanthea and acacia mearnsi - black wattle are the key dominators in my area). i can aliken the trees characteristics - both bark and phyllodes to the appearance of obtusifolia and no other species of wattle, which is what brings me to my question.... what lookalike species should i be aware of?

i have never seen an obtusifolia in the wild with my own eyes, so unfortunately i only know what i am searching for based on photos ... and there aren't a great deal of them either. most photos on the internet of acacia obtusifolia are close ups of the branches and phyllodes... but i'm not seeing many pictures of full trees and their trunks so i cant get an idea of the shape of the tree i am looking for. the main reason i am not sure what species this is, is because i dont know what the whole tree looks like.. i just know its aspects as well as i can from photos which are mainly showing certain parts of the tree

been looking for these fellas for a good 6 months now , and hoping these are the ones. both are already in sort of poor condition too so my conscience wont take quite as much of a beating as it would on a big healthy tree. tree A is squashed up against a fence and has no buddies around (this one looks really stressed and has red colouring all over it... might this be an indicator of dmt?) and the other is on a river with lots of flora but has a large gumtree growing over its head which i presume has prevented it from rising.. and caused it to grow outwards instead. also not looking in the greatest shape, the bark is in terrible condition although it has a lot more growth coming out the sides and spreading

anyways.... would be much appreciated if if some nexians knowledgeable on the subject of active acacias could fill me in on some lookalike species that i should be aware of to compare to my findings with in case i may be looking at a potential dud. also would really love it if some acacia obtusifolia enthusiasts upload any photos that they have taken of this species

cheers all and merry christmas

..hey bricklaya, i'll see about some ob photos in the acacia thread..it wasn't a 'priority' as this species had been so wild-attacked in NSW in the past..

the key characteristics of obtusifolia are blunt/rounded ends of phyllodes, thick leathery phyllodes with 2-3 prominent veins and many faint smaller ones, cream flowers in summer and straight pods only slightly constricted..bark texture varies widely..

i recall you're in vic..it occurs in far north eastern victoria, but...there is one isolated unique population in southern/central victoria (i don't want to actually map it here) and a very small planting just outside of melbourne, so you could have it..
what's interesting about the isolated 'unique' population is that they reproduce by root suckering, unknown in any other kind of obtusifolia..it actually needs to be studied more..

some photos of them would help..are they starting to show signs of flowering?

hey mate, thanks for the info your discription sounds identical to the two trees i have found. one tree is in the middle of my suburb on a pretty much abandonded field which is fenced off.....its actually incredibly easy to miss and is literally round the corner from my house. I dunno how i never noticed it. and the other is down by a river by a bike track. is it unlikely that these are obtusifolia being so close to society? do they generally grow further away? they are currently not flowering but have the flower pod shape the same as in photos i have seen. do they only flower in spring? cause they look like they might only be just beginning to flower... i dont recall seeing any flowers on that tree during spring which is probably why i missed it. i dont have access to a car down here which is why i have been confined to searching around the neighbourhoods. but it wasnt until i entered a small nature reserve by a creekland today that i noticed an acacia i never see around here and looked identical to the descriptions of obtuse

when i get access to a camera i'll chuck some photos up.

thats fair enough if you'd rather keep the photos to yourself for that reason. i heard up in nimbin there are literally hundreds of ringbarked trees around the area. also would you know of a good technique of removing bark with minimal harm to the tree?

..up near nimbin there wouldn't be much more than a few hundred trees to ringbark..hence the seriousness of the situation..even where it is more common the damage has been insidious..

but, as confirmed again in recent tests, the branch bark (& twigs) have as much alkaloid as the main trunk bark, so, as i've mentioned a few times on the nex,
pruning a branch is the less ecologically destructive thing to do..once you are growing them you especially see the short-sightedness and insanity of ripping into the main trunk if you want a long-lived source..

finally, some forms of mucronata can look very close..look forward to the pics..