33-501: The Brigalow Belt is a wide band of acacia -wooded grassland that runs between tropical rainforest of the coast and the semi-arid interior of Queensland and northern New South Wales , Australia . The Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA) divides the Brigalow Belt into two IBRA regions, or bioregions, Brigalow Belt North (BBN) and Brigalow Belt South (BBS). The North and South Brigalow Belt are two of
66-580: A different type , in order to retain the Australasian group of species in the genus Acacia . Following a controversial decision to choose a new type for Acacia in 2005, the Australian component of Acacia s.l. now retains the name Acacia . At the 2011 International Botanical Congress held in Melbourne , Australia, the decision to use the name Acacia , rather than the proposed Racosperma for this genus,
99-449: A different type species for Acacia ( A. penninervis ) and allowing this largest number of species to remain in Acacia , resulting in the two pan-tropical lineages being renamed Vachellia and Senegalia , and the two endemic American lineages renamed Acaciella and Mariosousa . In 2003, Anthony Orchard and Bruce Maslin filed a proposal to conserve the name Acacia with
132-440: A species from Africa, as the lectotype of the name. Genus Acacia was considered to contain some 1 352 species leading to 1986. That year, Leslie Pedley questioned the monophyletic nature of the genus, and proposed a split into three genera: Acacia sensu stricto (161 species), Senegalia (231 species) and Racosperma (960 species), the last name first proposed in 1829 by Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius as
165-461: A term used in antiquity to describe a preparation extracted from Vachellia nilotica , the original type species . A number of species of Acacia have been introduced to various parts of the world, and two million hectares of commercial plantations have been established. Plants in the genus Acacia are shrubs or trees with bipinnate leaves, the mature leaves sometimes reduced to phyllodes or rarely absent. There are 2 small stipules at
198-517: A thread-like style that is longer than the stamens. The fruit is a variably-shaped pod , sometimes flat or cylindrical, containing seeds with a fleshy aril on the end. The genus was first validly named in 1754 by Philip Miller in The Gardeners Dictionary . In 1913 Nathaniel Lord Britton and Addison Brown selected Mimosa scorpioides L. (≡ Acacia scorpioides ( L. ) W.Wight = Acacia nilotica ( L. ) Delille ),
231-668: Is a common food source and host plant for butterflies of the genus Jalmenus . The imperial hairstreak, Jalmenus evagoras , feeds on at least 25 acacia species. Many reptiles feed on the sap, such as the native house gecko in Australia. The sap is also consumed by bugs (Hemiptera), such as Hackerobrachys viridiventris and Sextius virescens . Some species of acacia contain psychoactive alkaloids , and some contain potassium fluoroacetate . The seed pods, flowers, and young leaves are generally edible either raw or cooked. Aboriginal Australians have traditionally harvested
264-527: Is a genus of about 1,084 species of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae . Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa, South America, and Australasia , but is now reserved for species mainly from Australia, with others from New Guinea , Southeast Asia, and the Indian Ocean. The genus name is Neo-Latin , borrowed from the Greek ἀκακία ( akakia ),
297-469: Is a member of a group of closely related rock-wallabies found in northeastern Queensland , Australia. It is paler than most of its relatives and even plainer, hence its common name. The unadorned rock-wallaby is patchily distributed in coastal ranges from around Rockhampton to near Townsville . This range includes the small range of the Proserpine rock-wallaby ( P. persephone ), the only rock-wallaby in
330-519: Is a particularly rich variety of habitats in areas such as Isla Gorge and Blackdown Tableland in the sandstone belt of the Carnarvon Range. The Northern Brigalow Belt is one of fifteen national biodiversity hotspots in Australia. The region is home to the unadorned rock-wallaby and the black-striped wallaby , which lives in the areas of vine thicket along with a wingless dung beetle ( Onthophagus apterus ). Two endangered mammals are found in
363-463: Is drier than the coast, which may have 750 mm or more. The characteristic plant communities are woodlands of highly water stress tolerant brigalow ( Acacia harpophylla ), a slender acacia tree which thrives on the clay soil and once covered much of the area especially the fertile lowlands. Most of the brigalow has been cleared to make agricultural land, but the Queensland Bottle Tree
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#1733094132146396-592: Is often left uncleared due to its leaves being fodder for cattle. Eucalypt woodlands of silver-leaved and narrow-leaved ironbarks , poplar box and other boxes, blackbutt and coolibah are also intact primarily on the higher slopes. Dichanthium grasslands are another typical habitat of the area while pockets of thicker woodland of brigalow mixed with Casuarina cristata and ooline occur in moister valleys and vine thickets , wetlands, and softwood scrubs are sometimes found although in their undeveloped state, these specialised micro-habitats are rare today. There
429-499: Is ongoing as there are a number of nature reserves of which do protect the various types of habitat found in the Belt including brigalow and eucalyptus woodland, grassland, vine thicket, high peaks, sandstone gorges and wetlands however these tend to be located on the sandstone uplands rather than the fertile lowlands, where the brigalow woodlands are still vulnerable to clearance and are often limited to small areas of parkland. The grasslands of
462-862: The Eocene of the Paris Basin . Acacia -like fossil pods under the name Leguminocarpon are known from late Oligocene deposits at different sites in Hungary . Seed pod fossils of † Acacia parschlugiana and † Acacia cyclosperma are known from Tertiary deposits in Switzerland . † Acacia colchica has been described from the Miocene of West Georgia . Pliocene fossil pollen of an Acacia sp. has been described from West Georgia (including Abkhazia ). The oldest fossil Acacia pollen in Australia are recorded as being from
495-572: The white-footed rabbit-rat and the Darling Downs hopping mouse . Together with the Mulga Lands , the Brigalow Belt are where most of Queensland's land clearing is occurring. Much of the brigalow woodland has been cleared or radically reduced to the extent that some wildlife, failing to thrive in the altered environment, has become extinct here with a number of the remaining communities threatened or endangered. The clearance of brigalow and poplar box
528-625: The 85 bioregions across Australia and the 15 bioregions in Queensland. Together they form most of the Brigalow tropical savanna ecoregion . The Northern Brigalow Belt covers just over 135,000 square kilometres (52,124 sq mi) and runs from just north of Townsville to Emerald and Rockhampton on the Tropic of Capricorn , while the Southern Brigalow Belt runs from there down to
561-880: The Brigalow Belt are: Taunton (the largest at 115 km); Epping Forest, Dipperu , Bowling Green Bay , Goodedulla National Park , Chesterton Range National Park , Homevale National Park , Blackdown Tableland National Park , Expedition National Park , and Carnarvon National Park . IBRA subregions of the Brigalow Belt North include Townsville Plains, Bogie River Hills , Cape River Hills, Beucazon Hills, Wyarra Hills, Northern Bowen Basin, Belyando Downs, Upper Belyando Floodout, Anakie Inlier, Basalt Downs, Isaac–Comet Downs, Nebo–Connors Ranges, South Drummond Basin and Marlborough Plains. 21°59′S 148°07′E / 21.983°S 148.117°E / -21.983; 148.117 Acacia List of Acacia species Acacia , commonly known as wattles or acacias ,
594-678: The Brigalow Belt; the bridled nail-tail wallaby in Taunton and Idalia National Parks , and the burrowing northern hairy-nosed wombat in the grassland and eucalyptus of Epping Forest National Park . There are also populations of dunnart, wallaby , bat and koala . Birds found here include black-throated finch and russet-tailed thrush , while endemic reptiles include the Fitzroy River turtle . A variety of spiders and insects are found there, including Euoplos dignitas , an armoured trapdoor spider discovered in 2023. Already extinct fauna include
627-483: The Queensland/ New South Wales border and a little beyond, until the habitat becomes the eucalyptus dominated Eastern Australian temperate forests . This large, complex strip of countryside covers an area of undulating to rugged slopes, consisting of ranges as well as plains of ancient sand and clay deposits, basalt and alluvium. The Northern Brigalow Belt includes the coal producing Bowen Basin , with
660-414: The base of the leaf, but sometimes fall off as the leaf matures. The flowers are borne in spikes or cylindrical heads, sometimes singly, in pairs or in racemes in the axils of leaves or phyllodes, sometimes in panicles on the ends of branches. Each spike or cylindrical head has many small golden-yellow to pale creamy-white flowers, each with 4 or 5 sepals and petals, more than 10 stamens , and
693-603: The late Oligocene epoch , 25 million years ago. Species of Acacia occurs in all Australian states and territories, and on its nearby islands. About 20 species occur naturally outside Australia and 7 of these also occur in Australia. One species ( Acacia koa ) is native to Hawaii and one ( Acacia heterophylla ) is native to Mauritius and Réunion in the Indian Ocean. They are present in all terrestrial habitats, including alpine settings, rainforests, woodlands, grasslands, coastal dunes and deserts. In drier woodlands or forests they are an important component of
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#1733094132146726-403: The most attractive timbers in the genus. Black wattle bark supported the tanning industries of several countries, and may supply tannins for production of waterproof adhesives . In Vietnam , Acacia is used in plantations of non-native species that are regularly clear-cut for paper or timber uses. Wattle bark collected in Australia in the 19th century was exported to Europe where it
759-651: The name of a section in Acacia , but raised to generic rank in 1835. In 2003, Pedley published a paper with 834 new combinations in Racosperma for species, most of which were formerly placed in Acacia . All but 10 of these species are native to Australasia , where it constitutes the largest plant genus. In the early 2000s, it had become evident that the genus as it stood was not monophyletic and that several divergent lineages needed to be placed in separate genera. It turned out that one lineage comprising over 900 species mainly native to Australia, New Guinea, and Indonesia
792-590: The nearby Drummond Basin and the fertile Peak Downs areas. The southern belt, which begins with the sandstone gorges of the Carnarvon Range of the Great Dividing Range , runs into the huge Great Artesian Basin . The south-west side includes the farming area of Darling Downs . A number of important rivers drain the Brigalow Belt. The large Fitzroy River system and the Belyando and Burdekin rivers near
825-439: The region are also under threat from introduced pasture grasses such as buffelgrass and weeds such as Congress weed . One particular threat comes from alterations to natural flow patterns caused by the addition of dams and weirs which impact the riverine and floodplain plant and animal species. A little more than two per cent of the Brigalow Belt lies within national parks and other protected areas. The largest national parks in
858-693: The seeds of some species, to be ground into flour and eaten as a paste or baked into a cake. Wattleseeds contain as much as 25% more protein than common cereals, and they store well for long periods due to the hard seed coats. In addition to using the edible seed and gum, the people employed the timber for implements, weapons, fuel and musical instruments. A number of species, most notably Acacia mangium (hickory wattle), A. mearnsii (black wattle) and A. saligna (coojong), are economically important and are widely planted globally for wood products, tannin , firewood and fodder. A. melanoxylon (blackwood) and A. aneura (mulga) supply some of
891-568: The tribe Ingeae . The genus name is Neo-Latin , borrowed from the Greek akakia , a name used by Dioscorides for some prickly species growing in Egypt, from acacis meaning "a point". In his Pinax (1623), Bauhin mentioned the Greek ἀκακία from Dioscorides as the origin of the Latin name. The origin of " wattle " may be an Old Teutonic word meaning "to weave". From around 700 AD, watul
924-540: The tropics all drain eastwards, while the south-western areas drain westwards into the Murray–Darling basin via the Maranoa , Warrego and Condamine Rivers . In the north, there are tropical summer rains and warm weather all year round, while in the south the winter is slightly cooler and there is more rainfall outside of the summer months. Throughout the belt, the interior, with less than 500 mm of rainfall per year,
957-481: The understory. Elsewhere they may be dominant, as in the Brigalow Belt , Myall woodlands and the eremaean Mulga woodlands. In Australia, Acacia forest is the second most common forest type after eucalypt forest, covering 980,000 square kilometres (378,380 sq mi) or 8% of total forest area. Acacia is also the nation's largest genus of flowering plants with almost 1 000 species found. Acacia
990-415: Was not closely related to the much smaller group of African lineage that contained A. nilotica – the type species . This meant that the Australasian lineage (by far the most prolific in number of species) would need to be renamed. Pedley's proposed name of Racosperma for this group had received little acclaim in the botanical community. Australian botanists proposed a less disruptive solution, setting
1023-477: Was upheld. Other Acacia s.l. taxa continue to be called Acacia by those who choose to consider the entire group as one genus. The Australian species of the genus Paraserianthes s.l. (namely P. lophantha) are deemed its closest relatives. The nearest relatives of Acacia and Paraserianthes s.l. in turn include the Australian and South East Asian genera Archidendron , Archidendropsis , Pararchidendron and Wallaceodendron , all of
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1056-497: Was used in Old English to refer to the flexible woody vines, branches, and sticks which were interwoven to form walls, roofs, and fences. Since about 1810 it has been used as the common name for the Australian legume trees and shrubs that can provide these branches. There are about 1,080 species of Acacia , mostly native to Australia. An Acacia -like 14 cm (5.5 in) long fossil seed pod has been described from
1089-572: Was used in the tanning process . One ton of wattle or mimosa bark contained about 68 kilograms (150 pounds) of pure tannin. The gum of some species may be used as a substitute for gum arabic , known as Australian gum or wattle gum. Some species of acacia – notably Acacia baileyana , A. dealbata and A. pravissima – are cultivated as ornamental garden plants. The 1889 publication Useful Native Plants of Australia describes various uses for eating. Unadorned rock-wallaby The unadorned rock-wallaby ( Petrogale inornata )
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