Abstract:
cacia
, commonly known as wattle, is the largest genus of flowering plants in Australia. Over
950 species have been identified on the continent, constituting mor
e than half of the 1352
species found worldwide (Maslin, 2001; Maslin and Or
char
d, 2004). W
attles have integrated
with the Australian “identity”, giving rise to symbolic use at national and local community
levels.
A. buxifolia
, or its close r
elative, was incorporated into the Australian Coat of Arms in
1912. It was adopted as a symbol of unification because of widespr
ead occurr
ence of the
Acacia
genus acr
oss the continent (Fig. 1A, B; W
orld W
ide W
attle, 2009).
A. pycnantha
(Golden W
attle)
had long been popularly r
egar
ded as Australia’
s national flower
. It was of
ficially pr
oclaimed her
national floral emblem in 1988 (Fig. 1C; Australian Symbols, 2000). Declaration of the national
flower was linked to pr
oclaiming September 1st as W
attle Day
. The pr
edominant gr
een and gold
colours of wattle foliage and flowers, r
espectively
, ar
e the country’
s of
ficial national colours
(Australian Symbols, 2000). Furthermor
e, many of the Australian medals of
honour that r
ecognise achievement or meritorious service featur
e wattles, e.g. The Or
der of
Australia. Some shir
es ar
ound the country
, such as Dalwallinu, Hyden and Cootamundra, have
adopted local species of wattle as their floral emblem. In these instances the species ar
e
A.
anthochaera
(Kimberly’
s wattle),
A. lanei
and
A. baileyana
(Cootamundra wattle), r
espectively
(W
orld W
ide W
attle, 2009).
