DISTRIBUTION

Global | In Australia | The Acacia Community | South-eastern Australia | Diversity

Acacia in the Australian vegetation

Because of their size, eucalypts appear to dominate the Australian landscape, but acacias are

Fig. 4. Acacia species richness in Australia (adapted from Maslin and Pedley)

also diverse and widespread. In Australia they occur in all terrestrial habitats except the alpine areas, and there are only a few species associated with rainforests. They are usually prominent in the understory of open and tall forests²⁸ and in the drier and hotter arid and semi-arid areas where eucalypts are few they are often the dominant tree or shrub species. They have even been seen growing in weathered rock and detritrus filled depressions on the top of Uluru!

Fig. 4 shows the number of Acacia species over the Australian continent, and Fig. 5 indicates the main distributional range of the species in the various Sections of Acacia.

Fig. 5. Distribution of the Sections of Acacia in Australia

Acacias are mostly large shrubs or small trees. They range in size from small shrubs less than 300 mm high to large trees exceeding 30 m in height.

Global | In Australia | The Acacia Community | South-eastern Australia | Diversity