Species
+

Acacia melanoxylon R.Br.

Australian Blackwood, Australian blackwood, Australiese swarthout, Blackwood

Climate known 67 photographs
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Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Acacia melanoxylon, commonly known as the Australian blackwood, is an Acacia species native to south-eastern Australia and an invasive species in other regions of the globe. The species is also known as blackwood, hickory, mudgerabah, Tasmanian blackwood, or blackwood acacia. The tree belongs to the Plurinerves section of Acacia and is one of the most wide-ranging tree species in eastern Australia and is quite variable mostly in the size and shape of the phyllodes.

Text from Wikipedia, “Acacia melanoxylon”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Acacia

Acacia, commonly known as wattles or acacias, is a genus of about 1,084 species of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa, South America, and Australasia, but is now reserved for species mainly from Australia, with others from New Guinea, Southeast Asia, and the Indian Ocean.

Text from Wikipedia, “Acacia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
R.Br.
Native to
New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia +2
Wild records
1385 in range· 1250 open

At a glance

Warmest month
24°C
Jan, mean day; nights 13 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
838mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 83 mm (CHELSA)
Light
12–45DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (November to June in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 838 mm a year, wettest June at 83 mm, driest February at 49 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 12 to 45 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 1.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Acacia arcuata Sieber; Acacia arcuata Sieber ex Spreng.; Acacia latifolia Desf.; Acacia melanoxylon f. frutescens Hochr.; Acacia melanoxylon f. melanoxylon and 7 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (November to June in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (611 mm of 838 mm) takes 8 months, May to December. Mean temperature moves 10.3 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: November to June.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 838 mm a year, wettest June at 83 mm, driest February at 49 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

838 mm a year at the habitat, 611 mm of it May to December. Wettest month June at 83 mm, driest February at 49 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 635 mm to 1344 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 12 to 45 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 12 to 45 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 10, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 1.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 1.3 °C, the absolute minimum -1.6 °C, 16 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 4.8 °C in July (across the envelope cells 1.2 °C to 8.4 °C), warmest day 23.9 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 1.3 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 58 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 11 °C in Jul to 24 °C in Jan; mean night from 5 °C in Jul to 13 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 838 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1083 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -1.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 37.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost37.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)-1.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 12–45RH 58–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1083 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C24 / 19–2624 / 20–2621 / 18–2418 / 15–2014 / 12–1712 / 9–1411 / 8–1412 / 10–1514 / 12–1817 / 14–2120 / 16–2322 / 18–25
Night °C13 / 11–1613 / 11–1712 / 9–1510 / 7–138 / 5–116 / 2–95 / 1–85 / 2–97 / 4–108 / 5–1110 / 8–1312 / 9–15
Rain mm56 / 33–13149 / 28–15356 / 37–12566 / 43–11072 / 50–11383 / 58–12780 / 53–13281 / 53–13974 / 54–11675 / 56–10775 / 46–11771 / 46–127
DLI45 / 40–4840 / 35–4331 / 29–3422 / 19–2615 / 12–2012 / 10–1713 / 11–1918 / 16–2625 / 24–3334 / 33–3841 / 39–4344 / 41–47
RH %58 / 54–6258 / 54–6359 / 56–6360 / 58–6363 / 60–6664 / 60–6864 / 59–6862 / 57–6560 / 57–6359 / 57–6259 / 56–6258 / 55–62

Each figure is the median across the 1083 grid cells holding the 1371 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2539:6593 (-36.975, 149.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -1.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 1.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 1083 distinct grid cells holding the 1371 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2539:6593 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -37.00_149.375, lapse-corrected -223 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 340 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeNew South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria· introduced: Great Britain, France, Portugal, Spain, Greece, Italy, Ukraine, Algeria, Morocco, Azores, Canary Is., Madeira, Zaïre, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Angola, Cape Provinces, Lesotho, KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland, St.Helena, Mauritius, Réunion, Transcaucasus, Palestine, Assam, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Western Australia, New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Easter Is., Hawaii, California, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Chile North, Chile South, Juan Fernández Is., Uruguay, Amsterdam-St.Paul Is.
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-37.824, 145.338 · in the densest population, 501 records (36% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1385 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 1250 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 109 km away. 498 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 14 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1385 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Acacia melanoxylonAcacia melanoxylonAcacia melanoxylonAcacia melanoxylonAcacia melanoxylonAcacia melanoxylonAcacia melanoxylonAcacia melanoxylon

Photographs: (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Leon Perrie, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Lucas Christofides, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Acacia melanoxylon, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Paving the Way for Lignin Valorisation: Recent Advances in Bioengineering, Biorefining and Catalysis
Roberto Rinaldi, Robin Jastrzebski, Matthew T. Clough, John Ralph (2016) · Angewandte Chemie International Edition
Trees and shrubs as invasive alien species – a global review
David M. Richardson, Marcel Rejmánek (2011) · Diversity and Distributions
Chromium Bioaccumulation and Its Impacts on Plants: An Overview
Anket Sharma, Dhriti Kapoor, Junfeng Wang, Babar Shahzad (2020) · Plants
Impacts of alien plant invasions on species richness in Mediterranean-type ecosystems: a meta-analysis
Mirijam Gaertner, A. den Breeÿen, Cang Hui, David M. Richardson (2009) · Progress in Physical Geography Earth and Environment
IXth International Symposium on Thysanoptera and Tospoviruses, 31 August - 4 September 2009
Denis Persley, CR Wilson, Jomy M Thomas, Murray Sharman (2010) · eCite Digital Repository (University of Tasmania)
Impacts of invasive Australian acacias: implications for management and restoration
David C. Le Maître, Mirijam Gaertner, Elizabete Marchante, Emilie Ens (2011) · Diversity and Distributions
Fungal Planet description sheets: 214–280
P.W. Crous, Roger G. Shivas, William Quaedvlieg, Michelle van der Bank (2014) · Persoonia - Molecular Phylogeny and Evolution of Fungi
Specificity in Legume-Rhizobia Symbioses
M. Andrews, Morag E. Andrews (2017) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences
The effect of elevated CO2 on the chemical composition and construction costs of leaves of 27 C3 species
Hendrik Poorter, Y. VAN BERKEL, Robert Baxter, Jeroen den Hertog (1997) · Plant Cell & Environment
From Litterfall to Breakdown in Streams: A Review
Manuela Abelho (2001) · The Scientific World JOURNAL
Forest Carbon Management: a Review of Silvicultural Practices and Management Strategies Across Boreal, Temperate and Tropical Forests
Abderrahmane Ameray, Yves Bergeron, Osvaldo Valeria, Miguel Montoro Girona (2021) · Current Forestry Reports

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Acacia 10 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 64 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.