The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Acacia harpophylla
Also called Brigalow Spearwood
Brigalow is a native Australian tree in the pea family that forms open woodlands on heavy clay soils in drier parts of eastern Australia. It is grown mainly in its native region and is rarely cultivated as a garden plant, so suits hot, dry, large-space planting in frost-free areas.
Acacia harpophylla, commonly known as brigalow, brigalow spearwood, orkor or ogarah, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is a tree with sickle-shaped phyllodes, spherical heads of golden yellow flowers and subterete straight to slightly curved pods, slightly raised over and constricted between the seeds. The Gamilaraay peoples know the tree as barranbaa or burrii. It is found in central and coastal Queensland to northern New South Wales. It can reach up to 25 m (82 ft) tall and forms extensive open-forest communities on clay soils.
Two species, brigalow (A. harpophylla) and gidgee (A. cambagei) form open woodlands on flat and gently undulating terrain on heavy and relatively fertile clay and clay-loam soils primarily in the 300-700mm annual rainfall region of Eastern Australia. These woodlands extend from a northern extreme of 20° S into northern New South Wales. Brigalow and gidgee occur as mixed communities in some regions and are commonly associated with several other woody species, including overstorey species such as Eucalyptus coolabah, E. cambageana, Casuarina cristata, and a range of understorey species. A. tephrina, A. georginae and A. argyrodendron also occupy similar habitats and have similar habits and growth forms, but are less widespread, while a number of other Acacia species also form structurally similar communities.
Jam wattle · Mulga · Acacia aneura var. major · Mulga · Earleaf acacia · Cootamundra wattle · Gidgee · Bower wattle · Cole's Wattle · Small Philippine acacia · Knife acacia · Silver Wattle
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Acacia harpophylla by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
