PlantFiles: Blackwood
Acacia melanoxylon

This Australian tree is an important timber tree, whose beautiful wood is much prized for furniture making. I have used veneers of this species in marquetry work. It is an Acacia, but unlike many Acacias, it does not retain its pinnate leaves. The true leaves are replaced by 'phyllodes', which are expanded leaf stalks. It starts off with pinnate leaves and one can watch the transition to its adullt leaf-form as the tree develops. Like most Australian Acacias, the seed has a very hard coating and can last for very many years and still germinate. We recently grew some Blackwoods for a revegetation project from seed collected in 1951. To get the seed to germinate, the favoured method is to pour boiling water over the seeds in a container and allow the water to cool and then sow the seed.
The flowers are fluffy balls of stamens. They are not as attractive as many Acacias, being pale cream in colour and rather scattered among the dense foliage of the tree. The pods are long and tend to be curled and twisted and when the pods open, the blackish seeds are seen to be surrounded by a bright red aril (the expanded seed stalk).
When we moved into our house, there was a small Blackwood at the back and we planted another by the front fence. Both are now substantial trees, approaching 15 metres and providing dense shade to parts of the garden.

This is one of the few acacias which is long lived and will form a shade tree (many acacias are quite short lived and will drop dead after 8 years or so). We have one about 10m high. The flowers are not as dense as many acacias but they are attractive to birds.

Fairly hardy being able to take at least -6 deg C.Grows fast as all acacias but forms a more tree like plant.
Suckers readily if roots near surface damaged. Suckers make propagation easy.