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Acacia tumida
Also called Sickle Leaf Wattle, Spear Wattle, Wongai
Pindan wattle is a fast-growing, short-lived tree or large shrub native to the dry tropics of northern Australia, typically reaching 5 to 15 metres. It is grown in arid and semi-arid regions for shade, firewood, windbreaks and soil binding, and is rarely grown as a garden ornamental.
Acacia tumida, known colloquially as pindan wattle, spear wattle or wongai, is a species of Acacia native to northern and western Australia.
A. tumida has a range that extends from the Kimberley, Pilbara and north eastern Goldfields regions of Western Australia including much of the Great Sandy Desert. It also extends into the Victoria River district of the Northern Territory. It grows well in sandplain areas in red sandy or pindan soils over sandstone. They often form dense thickets with spinifex.
Indigenous Australians used the trunk of young trees to fashion spears and boomerangs. The green seed pods were cooked over coals and the seeds then eaten. Fully ripened black seeds were ground into flour mixed with water and consumed as a paste or cooked and eaten as a damper. Other traditional uses include making string from the bark and using the gum exudate as a food source.
Acacia abbatiana · Acacia abbreviata · Acacia abrupta · Acacia acanthaster · Harrow Wattle · Acacia acellerata · Gold-dust acacia · Acacia aciphylla · Acacia acoma · Acacia acradenia · Strap Leaved Wattle · Acacia acuaria
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Acacia tumida 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.
