Eumong

Family: Wattle (Mimosaceae)

Scientific Name:

Acacia stenophylla

Photograph courtesy of Viridans Biological Databases (external link)

Status:

Australian native

Other Common Names:

River Cooba, River Myall, Belalie, Dunthy, Black Wattle, Dalby Myall, Ironwood, Native Willow, Gurley

Plant Description:

Straggly shrub or tree, to 10 m high, with drooping leaves and small branches. Leaves broad-linear, 15 – 40 cm or more long, 3 – 6 mm broad, slightly curved, thick, rigid, striated with 15 – 20 longitudinal veins.

Flowers pale yellow, in globular heads 6 – 9 mm diameter which are borne on stalks 6 – 10 mm long in clusters or short racemes of 1 – several heads in the leaf axils, each head composed of 25 – 30 minute individual flowers.

Pods 10 – 20 cm long, to 10 mm broad, leathery, rather thick, strongly constricted between the longitudinally arranged seeds.

Flowering mostly summer – early autumn

Habitat:

On heavy clay soils in River Red-gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis ) communities along river and creek banks and swamp margins and on islands in rivers and swamps. Also occurs in Black Box (Eucalyptus largiflorens ), and Belah (Casuarina pauper) communities but usually not far away from a river or creek channel. Adapted to saline, alkaline, waterlogged, heavy clay soils in arid and semi-arid regions where groundwater is available.

Region	Salinity Class	Waterlogging Class
Mallee, Loddon Murray	S0, S1, S2, S3	W2, W3

Comments:

Aboriginals used Eumong wood for clubs and boomerangs and roasted the pods to eat the seeds. It is not normally preferred by livestock but can be good sheep fodder

Related Links

CSIRO - Water for a Healthy Country - Eumong (external link)
CSIRO Publishing - Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture - Survival and growth of the tree species and provenances in response to salinity on a discharge site (external link). This paper examines salt tolerance of a range of tree species, including River Red-gum and Eumong

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