''Acacia pendula'', commonly known as the weeping myall, true myall, myall, silver-leaf boree, boree, and nilyah, is a species of wattle, which is native to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. The 1889 book ''The Useful Native Plants of Australia'' records that common names included "Weeping Myall", "True Myall", and

Indigenous people There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

of western areas of New South Wales and Queensland referred to the plant as "Boree" and "Balaar".

Description

The tree typically grows to a height of and a width of and has an erect, pendulous to spreading habit. It has hard fissured grey bark on the trunk and limbs. It has pendulous branches with angled or flattened branchlets that are covered in short fine hairs but becomes

glabrous Glabrousness () is the technical term for a lack of hair, down, setae, trichomes, or other such covering. A glabrous surface may be a natural characteristic of all or part of a plant or animal, or be due to loss because of a physical condition, ...

as it matures. The grey-green narrow

phyllode Phyllodes are modified petiole (botany), petioles or leaf stems, which are leaf-like in appearance and function. In some plants, these become flattened and widened, while the leaf itself becomes reduced or vanishes altogether. Thus the phyllode co ...

s are about in length and wide and have a narrowly elliptic to very narrowly elliptic or sometimes narrowly oblong-elliptic shape and can be straight or curved The phyllodes have many longitudinal indistinct veins, a subacute apex with

mucro The following terms are used to describe leaf plant morphology, morphology in the description and taxonomy (biology), taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (that is, the leaf blade or 'lamina' is undivided) or compound (that is, the leaf blade ...

and one gland near base. It flowers in the summer and autumn from around November to May and produces yellow flowers. The

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

s mostly occur in groups of two to five on an axillary axis. The spherical flower heads have a diameter of and contain 10 to 20 bright yellow flowers. The papery to leathery green

seed pod This page provides a glossary of plant morphology. Botanists and other biologists who study plant morphology use a number of different terms to classify and identify plant organs and parts that can be observed using no more than a handheld magnify ...

s that form after flowering are flat and straight to strongly curved and age to a brown colour. The pods are irregularly constricted between each seed and are in length and . Seeds are often collected between October and January.

Taxonomy

The species was formally described by the botanist

George Don George Don (29 April 1798 – 25 February 1856) was a Scottish botanist and plant collector. Life and career George Don was born at Doo Hillock, Forfar, Angus, Scotland on 29 April 1798 to Caroline Clementina Stuart and George Don (b.1756), pr ...

in 1832 as part of the work ''A General History of Dichlamydeous Plants''. It was reclassified as ''Racosperma pendulum'' by

Leslie Pedley Leslie Pedley (19 May 1930 – 27 November 2018)IPNILeslie Pedley/ref> was an Australian botanist who specialised in the genus ''Acacia''. He is notable for bringing into use the generic name ''Racosperma'', creating a split in the genus, which r ...

in 1987 then transferred back to genus ''Acacia'' in 2014. The

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

is in reference to the pendulous habit of the tree. It is derived from the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

word ''pendere'' meaning 'to hang down'.

Distribution

It occurs naturally in dry

outback The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than Australian bush, the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastli ...

areas in

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, and

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

. In New South Wales the tree has a disjunct but widespread distribution throughout inland areas, usually to the west of the upper

Hunter Valley The Hunter Region, also commonly known as the Hunter Valley, Newcastle Region, or simply Hunter, spans the region in northern New South Wales, Australia, extending from approximately to north of Sydney. It contains the Hunter River and its ...

. It is often situated on major river floodplains growing as part of woodlands, sometimes as the dominant species, where it grows well in heavy clay soils. In all states it is found to the west of the

Great Dividing Range The Great Dividing Range, also known as the East Australian Cordillera or the Eastern Highlands, is a cordillera system in eastern Australia consisting of an expansive collection of mountain ranges, plateaus and rolling hills. It runs roughl ...

growing in alluvial soils consisting of sand, gravel, silt and clay in areas that receive of annual rainfall.

Uses and cultivation

In ''The Useful Native Plants of Australia'' it was noted that "Stock are very fond of the leaves of this tree, especially in seasons of drought, and for this reason, and because they eat down the seedlings, it has almost become exterminated in parts of the colonies." The tree is available commercially as seedlings or in seed form and has many desirable properties in areas of low rainfall since it is

drought tolerant In botany, drought tolerance is the ability by which a plant maintains its biomass production during arid or drought conditions. Some plants are naturally adapted to dry conditions'','' surviving with protection mechanisms such as desiccation tole ...

. It is also frost tolerant and will grow in heavy clay soils. It is useful as a shelter-tree or as a windbreak and attracts native birds, particularly parrots who use the seeds as a food source. The rhizobium nodules in the roots also assist in fixing nitrogen into the soil. The blue-grey foliage and weeping habit make it popular both domestically and in overseas cultivation, including in Iran and Kuwait.

References

External links