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Acacia menzelii; photograph Murray Fagg, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons CC BYMurray Fagg, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Acacia menzelii J.M.Black

Menzel's wattle; Tallebung wattle

Fabaceae · South Australia

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Acacia menzelii, photograph Murray Fagg, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons 2 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
1.7°C
Record low -2.1 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
27°C
Jan and Feb at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
403mm
9 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
14–49DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet winters: the rain comes November to April and June (May to October and December at the habitat), read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Acacia menzelii, commonly known as Menzel's wattle, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to South Australia. It is a compact, rounded, spreading, resinous, sticky shrub with hairy branchlets, terete to flat, linear phyllodes, spherical heads of golden yellow flowers, and linear, thinly leathery to papery pods, scarcely constricted between the seeds.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Acacia menzelii", CC BY-SA 4.0.

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.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Acacia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (291 mm of 404 mm) falls in May to October and December, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 13.0 °C against a yearly mean of 15.4 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: November to April and June.

Rain

404 mm in the median year at the habitat, 291 mm of it May to October and December. Wettest month June at 50 mm, driest months (2 at 18 mm). Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 299 mm to 499 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 403 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 404 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 14 to 49 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 51).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 1.7 °C, the absolute minimum -2.1 °C, 22 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 41.6 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 6.3 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 4.7 °C to 6.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.2 °C in January and February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 1.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 54 to 60% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

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

Light. 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.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -29 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Acacia menzelii through the yearWarmest months January and February, mean daily high 27 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 6.3 °C; 404 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.-10°0°10°20°30°40°50°frost41.6° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-2.1° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075mm rainDLI 14–49RH 54–60%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 29 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C27 / 27–3327 / 27–3225 / 24–2921 / 20–2417 / 17–1914 / 13–1514 / 13–1415 / 14–1618 / 16–2121 / 19–2424 / 23–2826 / 25–30
Night °C15 / 14–2015 / 14–2013 / 13–1711 / 10–139 / 8–107 / 6–86 / 5–77 / 5–78 / 7–910 / 9–1212 / 11–1614 / 13–18
Rain mm18 / 16–2418 / 15–2719 / 16–2329 / 17–3337 / 26–4850 / 32–6747 / 30–6649 / 27–6742 / 29–5435 / 23–3929 / 25–3131 / 26–34
DLI49 / 49–5144 / 44–4735 / 35–4125 / 25–3117 / 17–2314 / 14–1815 / 15–1921 / 21–2528 / 28–3538 / 38–4345 / 44–4848 / 47–51
RH %54 / 43–5555 / 44–5556 / 45–5656 / 49–5758 / 53–6060 / 57–6260 / 56–6158 / 53–5957 / 49–5855 / 46–5654 / 45–5554 / 44–55
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 29 grid cells holding the 147 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 2503:6383 (-35.175, 139.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -2.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 1.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 41.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 29 distinct grid cells holding 147 of the 147 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2503:6383 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -35.00_139.375, lapse-corrected -29 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 107 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 the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeSouth Australia · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-35.067, 139.1 · in the densest population, 142 records (94% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 151 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 147 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 149 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 1 record outside the WCVP native range not used. 4 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 151 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Acacia menzelii, photograph 1did not load

Photographs: Murray Fagg, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Prostanthera eurybioides Prostanthera eurybioides Monarto Mint-bush Photo: CC BY, David SandoCarpobrotus modestus Carpobrotus modestus Inland pigface Photo: CC BY, bemmaAcacia argyrophylla Acacia argyrophylla Silver mulga Photo: CC BY-SA, Murray FaggHakea mitchellii Hakea mitchellii Desert Hakea Photo: CC BY, Rosalie LawrenceGrevillea ilicifolia Grevillea ilicifolia Holly grevillea Photo: CC BY, Alex StuartGlischrocaryon behrii Glischrocaryon behrii Golden pennants Photo: CC BY, spacegecko

Other Acacia 179 in the reference

Acacia acinacea Acacia acinacea Gold-dust acacia Photo: CC BY, Michael McBainAcacia acuminata Acacia acuminata Jam wattle Photo: CC BY, Chantel McWilliamAcacia adunca Acacia adunca Wallangarra wattle Photo: CC BY, Ivor WilsonAcacia alata Acacia alata Winged wattle Photo: CC BY, Tyler AnthonyAcacia alpina Acacia alpina Alpine Wattle Photo: CC BY, Petra HollandAcacia amblygona Acacia amblygona Fan Wattle Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg TasneyAcacia ammobia Acacia ammobia Mount Conner Wattle Photo: CC BY, Murray FaggAcacia amoena Acacia amoena Boomerang wattle Photo: CC BY, prossingtonAcacia anceps Acacia anceps Fabaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedAcacia aneura Acacia aneura Mulga Photo: CC BY, Petra HollandAcacia aphylla Acacia aphylla Leafless Rock Wattle Photo: CC BY, Tyler AnthonyAcacia araneosa Acacia araneosa Balcanoona Wattle Photo: CC0, author not stated all 180 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Racosperma menzelii. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipedia

The record

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
J.M.Black
Native to
South Australia
Wild records
151 in range · 149 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -35.00_139.375, lapse-corrected -29 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media nothing to reportasked 2026-10-21
Wikimedia Commons commons answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 12 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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