Acacia falcata, commonly known as sickle wattle and by other vernacular names including sally, is a perennial

Perennial plant

A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...

 shrub

Shrub

A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants may become either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...

 or tree

Tree

A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...

 native to eastern Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, which reaches five metres in height and has cream flowers in early winter. It gets its common and scientific name for its sickle-shaped leaves. Hardy and adaptable to cultivation, it is used in regeneration of bushland.

Taxonomy

German botanist Carl Ludwig Willdenow

Carl Ludwig Willdenow

Carl Ludwig Willdenow was a German botanist, pharmacist, and plant taxonomist. He is considered one of the founders of phytogeography, the study of the geographic distribution of plants...

 was the first to officially describe the sickle wattle in 1806, although his countryman Johann Christoph Wendland

Johann Christoph Wendland

Johann Christoph Wendland was a German botanist and gardener who was a native of Petit-Landau, Alsace. His son- Heinrich Ludolph Wendland and his grandson- Hermann Wendland were also gardeners and botanists.As a young man he received an education in horticulture at the nursery of Karlsruhe Palace...

 had given it the name Mimosa obliqua in 1798, this was deemed a nomen illegitimum

Nomen illegitimum

A nomen illegitimum is a technical term, used mainly in botany. It is usually abbreviated as nom. illeg..-Definition:...

. The species name is derived from the Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 word falx "sickle". Some common names for it are burra, sally, sickle-shaped acacia and silver-leaved wattle.

Description

Found as a shrub or small tree from 2 to 5 m (7–16 ft) high, Acacia falcata has grey or black bark. Like all wattles it has phyllodes rather than leaves. These are a pale green or grey-green and sickle-shaped, measuring 7–19 cm (2.8–7.6 in) in length, by 0.9–4 cm (0.4–1.6 in) wide with a prominent mid vein. The small round flowers are cream or pale-yellow and appear in early winter from April to August. These are followed by thin seed pods which are 4.5–12 cm (0.8–4.6 in) long and 0.5–0.8 cm (0.2–0.3 in) wide. The pods mature from September to December.

Distribution and habitat

The range is from Queensland south through eastern New South Wales to Bermagui on the south coast. It grows predominantly on shale soils in open forest, and is associated with such trees as Eucalyptus paniculata

Eucalyptus paniculata

Eucalyptus paniculata is a common eucalyptus tree of eastern New South Wales, Australia. A dark trunked forest tree with grey furrowed bark. When in flower, the nectar is attractive to birds and insects, and is used in honey production.- Habitat :The natural range of distribution is high rainfall...

, E. longifolia

Eucalyptus longifolia

Eucalyptus longifolia, known by the common name woollybutt, is a tree of the myrtle family myrtaceae native to eastern Australia. It has thick, fibrous bark usually colored light gray and white, and long narrow grey-green leaves. The drooping flowerheads in groups of three are a distinguishing...

and E. tereticornis

Eucalyptus tereticornis

Eucalyptus tereticornis is a species of tree native to eastern Australia.It has a great many common names, of which Forest Red Gum is perhaps the most widely known...

. Naturalised, it has been recorded in Java in Indonesia, and in North Island in New Zealand.

Ecology

Plants live for five to twenty years in the wild, and are killed by bushfire. The seed is released in December, and dispersed by wind. It is stored in the soil, although it is unclear how related germination is to bushfire. Seed can germinate in disturbed areas.

Acacia falcata is the host plant for the Imperial Hairstreak (Jalmenus evagoras). One field study recovered 98 species of bug (hemiptera

Hemiptera

Hemiptera is an order of insects most often known as the true bugs , comprising around 50,000–80,000 species of cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, shield bugs, and others...

) from A. falcata across its range.

Cultivation and uses

Acacia falcata is adaptable to a wide range of soils in cultivation, and its attractive foliage is a horticultural feature. It is propagated by seed which must be pretreated with boiling water before it is able to germinate. It is easy to grow given a good sunlit position and good drainage, and is used in revegetation.

Australian indigenous people use the bark to make a liniment for treating ailments of the skin. A. falcata is excellent for stabilizing barren sand. The bark is important in the tanning

Tanning

Tanning is the making of leather from the skins of animals which does not easily decompose. Traditionally, tanning used tannin, an acidic chemical compound from which the tanning process draws its name . Coloring may occur during tanning...

industry.