Silver Wattles

Every year I observe something that thrives in the presenting conditions. This year the outstanding thriver award goes to the Silver Wattle Acacia dealbata.

These trees are very common in my area. The literature reports the seed and gum were an important Aboriginal food before the land was stolen from them.

Silver Wattle blossom and Sulphur Crested Cockatoos

I have never seen such a vibrant flowering and then prolific seed set. I have a theory why this is so.... We had a dry winter and early spring which saw the wattles have a good long flowering and pollination. The opposite happened for my cherry trees that were flowering during a wet and cold mid - late spring period that saw poor pollination and fruiting.

So the wattles flowers turned to seed pods and we then had lots of rain which has resulted in trees dripping in big full seed pods.

So the ground is covered in seed. Ants are probably squirrelling them away. Antechinus are chomping away hopefully. Birds including Crimson Rosellas and my chickens are eating a fair few also.

And this lovely creature appeared the other day ascending to escape the sun and heat that was on its preferred feeding tree, a long leaved box eucalyptus globoidea