Plant Science Group Technical Talk

Acacia taxonomy and applications

Acacia is the largest genus of vascular plants in Australia with over 1000 species. They are a prominent part of the Australian flora, growing in a wide range of plant communities and habitats, from coastal to subalpine, tropical to arid.

After much controversy Acacia s. lat. has been split with the genus name Acacia retained for the largest group which occurs in Australia, but only after the Type was changed following international botanical code processes.

This talk will discuss interesting facts and figures about the genus and related taxa, including recent taxonomic debates, and developments in the Flora of Australia on-line version and the electronic plant identification tool WATTLE.

Speaker: Dr Phillip Kodela, Flora botanist and scientific editor, Australian Biological Resources Study, Parks Australia Division, Department of the Environment and Energy.