The bush was grey
A week today
Olive green and brown and grey;
But now the spring has come this way,
With blossoms for the wattle.
By Veronica Mason.
One of my favourite trees is Acacia pravissima, also known as The Oven’s wattle. It can withstand the heaviest of frosts and is pretty well disease free. A well drained position suits them best. There are several in my upper Blue Mountains garden and all are thriving. Clearly I’m not alone in my admiration;
I love the comparison of the unusual foliage to origami snakes;
In early spring (well, late winter) the tree is a cloud of tiny, soft pink buds.
Pravissima (left) contrasts with the silver wattle..
The colour changes radically as the golden blooms edge close to flowering. So difficult to believe it could look so different.
The Pravissima is about to flower and no longer pink.
One warm day later (mid September) and the first flowers appear. Soon the bees will arrive in their hundreds. Wattle honey sounds rather wonderful
The original pale pink spring buds are mirrored by the seed pods in summer. Aren’t they beautiful?
Seed capsules of Acacia pravissima
The gorgeous king parrots adore the seeds, and I adore watching them extract the delicacy from the capsules
Far more agile than me!
I wonder if these seeds are the type that feature in ‘bush tucker’ recipes such as wattle seed bread? I suppose I could try a few when they ripen. Ovens Wattle seed bread baked for tea….. how appropriate that would be.
Wattle seed soda bread
By the way, there is a prostrate variety of Acacia pravissima called Kuranga Cascade. It has a spreading habit and can be used as a ground cover in a native garden; or in rockeries. I don’t remember ever seeing a ground cover acacia.
