Acacia coriacea DC.

Leguminosae

Synonyms

Common names

Desert oak. (It is called desert oak because it resembles certain species of Hakea and Grevillea.)

Description

Erect shrub up to 4-5 m high to a small tree of 6-10 m, dark grey bark, thick and fibrous, new shoots covered with appressed yellow hairs. Phyllodes : variable in shape, usually linear either almost cylindrical or flat, leathery (hence the name), or even hard and sub-woody, often twisted. 10-35 cm long, x 1.5-12 mm wide, with a sub-acuminate apex., covered with a deciduous silvery down, less than 2 mm long. Provided with many fine, parallel, unconspicuous, non-anastomosing nerves. Flowers creamish to pale-yellow, clustered by 30-50 in spherical heads 5-8 mm in diameter, on a 5-10 mm peduncle. Rudimentary whorls with only 1-2 heads, flowering year-round. Pods covered with a fine, light-grey down, coriaceous or downright woody, often twisted 15-35 cm long x 7-12 mm wide, with narrow constrictions between seeds, more or less flattened, with longitudinal nerves. Seeds longitudinally set out in the pod articles, 4-10 mm long x 4-6 mm wide. With a large, fleshy, orange-red aril circumscribing about 1/3 of the seed.

Allied taxa : A. sericophylla Pedley, A. stenophylla.Cunn. ex Benth.

Water

This is one of the most drought-tolerant tropical acacias of North and North West Australia, being able to survive years with no more than 50 mm of rain in 20 days in its native area of distribution. Rainfall in its native habitat varies from 200 to 500 mm MAR. 

Soil

This species proliferates mainly in deep sandy soils.

Distribution

In Australia it occurs along the 20°S Lat. from Western Australia, through the Central Highlands, north-west Queensland and into the Northern Territory, Australia. Oslo, the driest part of the Australian Tropics. Showed excellent adaptation to the coastal strip of Senegal.

Propagation

Propagation by seeds, good ability to suckering, life span fairly long.

Products & uses

Firewood plantations, land rehabilitation, branches are too thin, however, for the making of charcoal. Forage value is naught, as neither the pods nor the phyllodes are palatable. Green pods and seeds are consumed by aborigines after grinding. Although Acacia coriacea is eaten freely by sheep and is fairly palatable, its leaf yield is small (Everist, 1969).

Links for the genus:

• The WattleWeb: Acacias from A-Z
• Seed treatment and inoculation: Instructions for acacias and other NFT (Nitrogen Fixing Trees)
• Sustainable livestock production: Indigenous knowledge in utilization of local trees and shrubs in central Tanzania

References

Turnbull 1986 ; Turnbull 1991 ; Turnbull et al. 1986 ; Harwood 1993 ; Gunn & Vercoe 1993 ; Maslin & McDonald 1996 ; Pedley 1986 ; Pedley 1991 ; Maslin et al. 1998 ; Dommergues et al. 1999.