WADDI
Acacia peuce
Plant Family
Fabaceae
Alternative Common Names
Birdsville wattle, waddy, or waddy-wood
One of Australia’s rarest plants. Medium tree growing up to 15 to 18 metres high, with short horizontal branches and pendulous branchlets covered in needle-like phyllodes adapted for the arid dry climate. The wood is extremely hard and dense with dark purple coloured heartwood. The trunk and branches are covered with a fibrous grey-brown bark. It is a very slow growing species and can live up to 200 years. Sapling and juvenile trees have a conifer like habit and can take 3 years to reach a height of 1 metre. Some individuals are estimated to live over 500 years.
Flowers - a pale-yellow colour.
Pods - long, flat, with a papery texture containing large, flat seeds.
Flowering autumn and spring usually following heavy rain.
Habitat
Open arid plains that usually receive less than 150 millimetres of rain per annum. They grow on shallow sand aprons overlaying gibber or clay slopes and plains and between longitudinal dunes or on alluvial flats between ephemeral watercourses.
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