Acacia phlebophylla, an Acacia

Acacia

Acacia is a genus of shrubs and trees belonging to the subfamily Mimosoideae of the family Fabaceae, first described in Africa by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in 1773. Many non-Australian species tend to be thorny, whereas the majority of Australian acacias are not...

also known by the names Buffalo Sallow Wattle and Mountain Buffalo Wattle, is a straggling 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...

 to small, twisted 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...

 reaching up to 5 meters in height. It is a close relative of Acacia alpina

Acacia alpina

Acacia alpina is an evergreen shrub 1 m to 2 m high and about 10 m wide.It is a close relative of Acacia phlebophylla and they tend to hybridize. It often can be found in alpine and subalpine areas of Australia....

. It has large, elliptic, flat, commonly asymmetrical phyllodes 4-14 cm long, 1.5-6 cm wide, with coarse veins, a leathery feel, prominent nerves and reticulated veins. Deep yellow rod-like flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...

s appear in spring (June-December in Australia), widely scattered on spikes 4-7 cm long, followed by 7-10 cm long legumes in November-March, narrow, straight or slightly curved, releasing 5-10 elliptical seeds, 5-7.5 mm long. Solitary or twinned spikes, to 6 cm long. Only known from the high altitude granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

 slopes of Mount Buffalo National Park

Mount Buffalo National Park

Mount Buffalo is a mountain plateau in Victoria , 200 km northeast of Melbourne. It is one of the oldest parks in the Australian Alps, being first established in 1898 when 1165 ha was reserved around Eurobin Falls...

, Victoria

Victoria (Australia)

Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

, 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...

, where it occurs above 350 meters in woodland

Woodland

Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...

s and heathlands often amongst granite boulders.

This is one of the purest natural sources of the psychedelic drug

Psychedelic drug

A psychedelic substance is a psychoactive drug whose primary action is to alter cognition and perception. Psychedelics are part of a wider class of psychoactive drugs known as hallucinogens, a class that also includes related substances such as dissociatives and deliriants...

 dimethyltryptamine

Dimethyltryptamine

N,N-Dimethyltryptamine is a naturally occurring psychedelic compound of the tryptamine family. DMT is found in several plants, and also in trace amounts in humans and other mammals, where it is originally derived from the essential amino acid tryptophan, and ultimately produced by the enzyme INMT...

, also known as DMT, which occurs as the predominant alkaloid

Alkaloid

Alkaloids are a group of naturally occurring chemical compounds that contain mostly basic nitrogen atoms. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Also some synthetic compounds of similar structure are attributed to alkaloids...

 throughout the plant. However due to conservation issues this species is not considered a viable source of tryptamines, as outlined below. A much more common species such as Acacia obtusifolia

Acacia obtusifolia

Acacia obtusifolia is a perennial tree in subfamily Mimosoideae of family Fabaceae.- Description :Acacia obtusifolia is an upright or spreading perennial tree which grows from 1.5m to 8m in height and it is native to Australia. It is closely related to Acacia longifolia...

, should be researched instead.

Recent reports on regrowth after the 2006 bushfires indicates that the phyllodes of young plants have little to no dimethyltryptamine content. This is presumed to be due to the young age of the plants versus the old growth that stood before the fire.

Conservation

• Care must be taken with this species as it consists of one population or metapopulation which has been ravaged over the years by bush fires and fungal infections. Acacia phlebophylla is listed as rare and threatened by the Victoria Department of Sustainability and Environment. There is significant concern for the viability of this population, particularly with the threat of fungal
  Fungus
  A fungus is a member of a large group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds , as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, Fungi, which is separate from plants, animals, and bacteria...
  
   pathogen
  Pathogen
  A pathogen gignomai "I give birth to") or infectious agent — colloquially, a germ — is a microbe or microorganism such as a virus, bacterium, prion, or fungus that causes disease in its animal or plant host...
  
  s and other disturbances. (A particular species of local wasp may be associated with the transmission of this fungal pathogen.)

• Looking/walking amongst them from stand to stand has been strongly advised against, due to the risk of spreading the fungal pathogen which at the moment is their greatest threat.

• Though there are many accounts of bountiful regrowth, this species should not be used for the extraction of drug
  Drug
  A drug, broadly speaking, is any substance that, when absorbed into the body of a living organism, alters normal bodily function. There is no single, precise definition, as there are different meanings in drug control law, government regulations, medicine, and colloquial usage.In pharmacology, a...
  
  s for conservation reasons. Attempts at ex-situ cultivation have been mostly unsuccessful and have usually resulted in plants dying at 3 years. If cultivation is successful, it is important that plants are allowed to mature and produce seeds for eventual rehabilitation rather than used for tryptamine production.

Healthy plants exist in private gardens near Gatton, Qld, as well as in Ireland, indicating the plant is not as recalcitrant in cultivation or restricted to its alpine environment as was once thought.

External links

• Acacia Phlebophylla - Extensive Information and Photos.