ISeJ 10354638 ~mOFSOCIE;TIESm~~mAMS ACACIA~eWXlP~No.73- FEBRLlARY 1995 Dear Metnkrs, The 18th Biennial ASGAP Conference is at Ballarat on 23-30 September this year and as this is only a couple of hours drive away I hope to meet sane Acacia Study -up rnmcers there. I'm not sure yet which days or for how long I will be attenciing but I hope it will be for several days at least. Perhaps at sane stage Acacia Qoup members &nay be able to arrange an informal get together. If you ate attending perhaps you would like to help with the Study Group Display on the evening of Tuesday 26th. If so please let me !-am. It has been suggested that sane enlarged photos of Acacias be obtained and laminated for this and future displays. I have not got around to sarting out slides far this but if you have any very qccd slides or negatives of acacias growing in containers, cultivation (garden, park ar in xalsettings) wh.ich you muld allow the group to use please forward then far consideration (by the end of March), Forward and return postage will be paid by the -up. Close up photos of interesting aspects (e.g. seeds, leaves, flowers etc. 1 of acacias are also required, Slides to hand have enough good shots of plant farm etc. Bruce mlin (see below) has sent news of the future publication of the Acacia ~lmesof the "Flora of Australia" series. mis will give a treatment of all known species although I note new species of Eucalypts have been described since the publication of the volume on that genus. It will fill a big gap in publications on Acacias as it will cover the Western Australian and NOT. s~ies for which no cunprehensive publication exists. SEEZ) BAM[. NPWS: Sane seeds are in short supply and will not be replenished until autumn so please list a few alternatives when ordering. There have been fuzther seed requests without S.A.E. It is possible to werlwk an envelope but it has got byond a fair thing. IN RrmRE ALSEWUW RB;X]FLS wmm~A STAWED (45C1) AWREiSED JBVEWPE WILI, FO! BE SENT. A business sized stanqxd addressed envelqe will take up to 1210- of seed. If you only want 6 lots they will fit in an ordinary letter envelope. Overseas meTlber ' s pstage for seed requests is cover& by t9.ei.r membership fee. t;elce to NEW MmBEs: Russell Cbmhg, 68 Tippett St., Gulliver, Tmnsvllle 4812 has rejoined the group. Russell is a btanist and ecologist with the Old. Cept. of Environment and Heritage and has a special, interest in acacias. He writes: "I have finally bought a house, I am getting back to growing things for the first ti! in *ut 15 years. .. I did a lot of field mrk on acacias in Western Australia in the early '80s and have one named for me by BNCe Masiin - A* czim'dngiana - a small wiry leafless (phyllodeless) species in the A. volubilis - tetragcnocarpa - stenoptera group." Grovely TAFE Centre, 72 Fitzsirmrons St. Grovely Qld. 4054 ,have also joined as the newsletter will be relevant for their students. CBANGE OF AWRESS: Inez Amitage has a new address - cedar Palace Hostel, 58 Coc,hrane Street, Kqsey N.S.3. 2440. Bruce Clark (Leader) m*MFmExs: FfQrion Sbmnons (Legana Tas. ) wrktes : "Cw plant (A. pataczekii) ,has suc~ered tremendously, but I have near5 of otner people wno grow it an5 it doesn't sucker. I guess +he ptmtial is always there. I:ot much citing in my Acacia plantings at the mment. AE. barsttensis has a few flowers on it, they itre its first effort an5 black kzttles arc in flwer zlthough the flaising seem to k short Lnis year which is probcbly sue to the unreczsonably dry conditions. We haven ' t .md rain s,' any mnsequace for many months. " &on Steinhard+, (LaiSey Q'ld.) 19-1-95 "The weather man says Lhat rain is on tne way for Sueensland. It's a long "& since we heard thst. 1993 was the driest on recore an5 1994 Gas only 60 mn. better. But there is a bright side to this; it is gd weatns for gro~ingacacia s&ings. In the latter part of last year, I germinated quite a few different typs of Acacia seed and have quite a few seedlings in pots in various snaay swts wounci the place. In dry weather loss of seeCLings is very low provided y~ucan keep the nares and associate5 wildlife away. I have even been gane enough to plant out few of the biggw plants since the temperatures tnis SWJ have ken quite reasonable. So far I have lost only three of these plants. A few of the older larger, Acacias have given up thougn. Pnst of these were over about 7 years and so were near the en5 of their life spans. Tne drought just hastend the process." FlU!l BRUCE MASLIN (Mestern Australian HerDarium): "I have been amazingly busy of late. The Flora of Australia project has now "cranked up" by my appointing two adsitiondl people to help with its prcxiuction; it is this work which is consuming mst of my time. If all goes we11 I should have most of the text finished by mi6-1995; the tm Acacia volumes are schedulec? for publication around mid-1996. Tne lain task a': hand is the construction of a key to the 954 species; I am using a DELTA (electronic) database to assist here, indeed, without this sort of tml I don't really know what I muld have done." Inez Armitage has sent Bruce slides and other Acacia "mrabilia". "Her photographs will ultimately k incorparated into the Herbarium's official collection and proSa5ly put on CD.R3fJI for permanency. Bruce continues: "I have just returned £ran a tm week trip to the Northern Territory. The main pupse of this was to look at the variation in A. cowleana (it canprises mre than one species) as this is one of a group of north Australia taxa that have sane potential as human fooci in parts of the developing world. I li~ebeing involved in a project such as this where my taxoncmic skills can ke put to practical use. I want to do more of this applied work once the Flora is off my back." PAST -: The Group has a ccmplete (as far as I car. determine) set of pst newsletters dating £ram 22 June 1961. Dr. A. C. Keane, first Leader, pre-~ard25 unnWs4 issues up until February 1966. Numbering cmcf?d in PKmch1968 when Robert Coveny twl; over as Leader. I intend to photo copy all those of which I do not hold duplicates with the aim of having t!em held by smeone other +?hnthe Group Leader, thus ensuring the survival of this valuable resowce in the case of acciden+al loss of the oziginais. ITEG W?WI'ED: I seem to be rat&= short of items for future newsletters so c~ntributions£ran axe required. This is your newsletter and it depends on your contributions to keep it interesting for ct'ler me-s. If you have not written a piece fcr it, now is the time to tell us &ut your acacia growing, acacia viewing cr a+ress my you have relating to the genus. I lmk formrd to hearing from ycu. F'RCN " AN OVERVIEW CF THE GmVS ACACIA by Inez Amutacje (&lid fZcrth C~ZSC Newsletter August 1994. when George Bentham mpiled his "Flora Australiensis" in the 1860s there were 293 species of Acacia officially reaqnised in Australia. Today there are approximately 900. Because of its diversity of form Bentham described the genus as one of the mst difficult of Australian genera to classify, and despite several attempts by individual taxonanists, especially in recent years, to intrcduce an entirely new system of classification, thankfully none has so far been able to achieve general acceptance. Long may this state of affairs continue! Bentham first selected. the .mst obvious line of division: that between fern-like (bipimate) leaves and ordinary leaves (phyllcdes). These main groups are divided into many sub-groups according to type of inflorescence, num?xx of individual flowers in each head and the nlnnber of petals in each tiny flower; shape and size of phyllodes, their veining, texture and colour, position of glanci (a high -centage of Australian Acacia have one gland on each phyllcde) and ot!!er less imprtant characteristics. In the course of my 30 year love affair with the genus I have grown fran seed more than 200 spxies. Nearly all species germinate readily, even when seed is several years old, provided the outer hard covering of the seed, the testa, is sufficiently abraded to ensure penetration of water. I have selected as my naninal favowcite a tree, not only because it is very beautiful but because it has so many other pluses, including resistance to borers, an unusually healthy life style, longevity and adaptability and kecause I know it intimately, having grown it continuously for 25 years, in Sydney and in Kempsey. The tree is Acacia binervia. It occurs naturally in south eastern areas of New South Wales, roughly adjacent to Tamarth, Singleton, GouLbourn, Wollongong and Bega. About half a dozen of these trees planted on the bank of the Macleay River adjacent to the main traffic bridge about 30 years ago are nw roughly 40 feet high with beautiful sturdy trunks, reddish-brown bark and magnificent foliage. Although A. binervia must be rated as a large tree, it is not a rain forest giant and is well suited to country gardens.