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Fabaceae family

Cedar Wattle Acacia elata

Cedar Wattle is an introduced perennial tree, found in the lower 48 states. It grows to 34 ft.

More about this plant

Acacia elata, commonly known as cedar wattle or mountain cedar wattle, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to New South Wales. It is an erect tree with dark brown to black bark, bipinnate leaves, oblong to spherical heads of pale yellow or cream-coloured flowers and firmly, more or less straight and flat, papery to leathery pods. Wikipedia →

⚠ Invasive here — plant a native instead USDA + GBIF

Cedar Wattle is flagged invasive in the U.S. These natives fill a similar niche — same growth habit, bloom season, height, and region — so you keep the look and feed local wildlife instead of spreading a problem.

Engelmann Oak
Native
Engelmann Oak
Quercus engelmannii
●●●●●
Western Juniper
Native
Western Juniper
Juniperus occidentalis
●●●○○
California Wax Myrtle
Native
California Wax Myrtle
Morella californica
●●●○○
Cascara Buckthorn
Native
Cascara Buckthorn
Frangula purshiana
●●○○○
Matched on growth habit · bloom months · mature height · shared U.S. range (USDA + GBIF) — a starting point, not a prescription.

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY
Conditions
Sources · Conditions
Cold hardiness (derived) — Hardiness
Hardiness
≥ zone 11 derived from its U.S. range
Size & form
Sources · Size & form
TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0) — Height · Foliage
USDA PLANTS — Lifespan
Height
34 ft
Lifespan
Perennial
Foliage
Evergreen broadleaf
In the garden
Sub-canopy / understory layer — Sits in the understory of a layered food forest or polyculture.Open guide →
Nitrogen fixer — Fixes atmospheric nitrogen through root-nodule bacteria — builds soil fertility for itself and its neighbours, cutting fertiliser need.Open guide →
derived roles
Species characteristics from USDA PLANTS (public domain) + TRY (CC BY) — general guidance, not a guarantee for your exact site. Deer "browsing" is documented palatability, not a deer-proof claim.

Wildlife & pollinators

How pollinator value is scored →
❧ Caterpillar hosts ~11 caterpillar species

Acacia supports ~11 caterpillar species.

Native butterfly & moth caterpillars are the base of the terrestrial food web — most songbirds rear their young almost entirely on them. As a host for native Lepidoptera this is a moderate genus.

Recorded feeding on Acacia in North America, including:

Amyelois transitella · Navel Orangeworm Anacamptodes fragilaria · geometer (inchworm) moth Anacamptodes humaria · geometer (inchworm) moth Apotoforma rotundipennis · leafroller moth Argyrotaenia citrana · leafroller moth Ascalapha odorata · Black Witch
+ 8 more species →
Batia lunaris · concealer moth Cacoecimorpha pronubana · Carnation Tortix Cogia outis · Outis Skipper Corcyra cephalonica · snout moth Cryptothelea gloverii · bagworm moth Cyclophora nanaria · geometer (inchworm) moth Cydia largo · leafroller moth Cydia ninana · leafroller moth
Keystone count (genus-level) from Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use records. Named species (a documented Nearctic sample, not exhaustive) from NHM HOSTS (CC0).
Wildlife & visitors 1 bird

Open records of who else uses Cedar Wattle — a generalist food-web signal, kept separate from the keystone Ecological Value.

Recorded eaten by 1 bird species (fruit, seed, browse):

Callocephalon fimbriatum · Gang-Gang Cockatoo
Interaction records (observations, not exhaustive) from GloBI → (CC0). Counts are distinct species; names are the most-recorded. Common names from Wikidata (CC0).
Species thumbnails re-hosted from iNaturalist — Creative Commons, credited per image (hover for credit). Click any species to see it on iNaturalist. Not exhaustive; many taxa have no openly-licensed photo yet.
How we know this (1) Methods & honest limits
Photosynthesis Direct fact

A recorded categorical fact: each species is tagged C3 (standard), C4 (heat/water-efficient) or CAM (succulent, night-time CO₂ uptake) — or a facultative combination. We only show a trait card for the noteworthy C4/CAM cases; C3 is the unremarkable majority, kept in the data but not surfaced as a card.

Kattge, J. et al. TRY plant trait database — Categorical Traits Dataset (2012).
Derived values are computed from open data by a published method — labelled, cited, and never shown as a direct observation. Full methodology →
Sources for this entry (17) Open & cited
[01] Scientific name & family — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[02] Growth habit & duration — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[03] Native status & distribution — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[04] Common name — USDA PLANTS (via GBIF)
[05] Invasive / introduced status — US-RIIS v2.0 (USGS)
[07] Description — Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
[08] Ecological value — Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[11] Functional traits — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)
[12] Photosynthetic pathway — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)
[13] Cold hardiness (derived) — Derived from U.S. range × USDA PHZM zones
[14] Wildlife & visitors — GloBI — Global Biotic Interactions (CC0)
[15] Nitrogen fixation — Werner et al. 2014 (Dryad, CC0)
[16] Caterpillar host count — Warren II 2026 (Dryad, CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[17] Caterpillar species — NHM HOSTS (CC0)
Spot an error or have a better photo? Every field links to its source, and the whole dataset is open.
Cite this page Open data, please attribute

PlantKey’s data is open under CC BY-SA 4.0 — free to reuse and adapt, with attribution and the same licence. Photos keep their own per-image licence + credit (see Sources above).

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