Plants I Know and Love No. 14: The Acacia Tree (known as Wattle Tree in Australia)

Good morning. Tina here. I am sharing some pictures found on the internet of one of my favorite trees, the acacia tree.

I am not sure when I fell in love with this tree. How lovely it looks covered with bloom!

I was just a little girl so my memories are vague. It could have been at a Southern California relative's home, or perhaps one of my primary school teachers brought in a bouquet?

It does not grow easily in El Dorado County, as it is a tropical or subtropical plant, which hails from Australia, or some species from Africa and the warm portions of the Americas.

There are acacia trees growing here in our county. I see them here and there, perhaps they are protected by other trees or a hillside to keep the cold wind off. We had one I planted in Diamond Springs, it did well until we had an Alaskan freeze one year with about 18 inches snow and that killed it off.

I've always thought about trying again here in Kelsey. We seem to live in a banana belt, and maybe an acacia tree would like that.

My most wonderful memories are of the lovely little powder puff blossoms and the fresh, sweet scent to inhale.

The flowers are loved by bees and butterflies, of course.

The acacia tree is a member of the pea family! Isn't that a surprise. The mimosa tree, and the sensitive plant (once sold in the 70s as a houseplant - I had one, if you touched it, it would close up and act like it was wilting) are members of the pea family also.

The little blossoms are a ball formed of stamens radiating out from the center. They are each only about 1/4 inch in size but there are thousands, so they form their own bouquet.

I can never get enough of them.

The photo below shows some of the blossoms as they are opening up. This type of acacia has the fern-like leaves that I associate with the tree. Since there are hundreds of types, only some have these type leaves.

The leaves below are different than the photo above, but the flowers are the same.

Lovely to look at, delightful to smell, this wonderful tree I know so well...

Excuse me while I bury my face in these soft little puffs, and soak up the scent of spring.