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Wed, Feb 10, 10 at 16:22
| Hi, first time posting here, but have learned so much from reading this forum. My question is: what is the plant pictured below? I see it all over in San Diego and I would love to plant it in my yard. Seems like it doesn't need much water and it forms a nice dense ground cover and it has pretty yellow flowers right now. I see it in the median of the 52 freeway and all over on the grounds of UCSD. Bottom line is I want it! :)
Thanks for any help identifying it. Jake |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| The flowers remind me of an acacia. |
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- Posted by lakesidejake (My Page) on Wed, Feb 10, 10 at 19:46
| Thanks for the pointer. Here is another photo of the same plant, in the median of SR-52 approaching La Jolla. It seems to grow in flat spreading mounds, up to maybe 6 feet high.
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- Posted by hosenemesis SoCal Sunset 19 USDA (My Page) on Wed, Feb 10, 10 at 19:59
| Could it be Trailing Acacia? I love the blue foliage with the yellow flowers. Make sure you are not allergic to the pollen. Renee |
Here is a link that might be useful: Trailing Acacia
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- Posted by lakesidejake (My Page) on Wed, Feb 10, 10 at 20:12
| Thank you, to both of you, that's it! Acacia Redolens, aka Trailing (or Prostrate) Acacia. http://ag.arizona.edu/pima/gardening/aridplants/Acacia_redolens.html I have some sunny slopes that this will be perfect for, now I just have to find it. |
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| FYI - most people are NOT allergic to acacia. They blame Acacia because they can see the flowers - 99.9 percent of the time the cluprit is the evergreens which are releasing pollen at the same time. |
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| Acacia reseeds itself all over the place. Most highways that are lined with the stuff were never planted. It is pretty in bloom but not a good companion for most other plantings. Al |
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- Posted by still_kris z17 NoCA (My Page) on Fri, Feb 12, 10 at 10:39
| My neighbors had a huge stand of a tree size acacia and I certainly notice the difference now that they have been removed. We still have plenty of huge forest trees (evergreens--monterey pine, redwood, sitka spruce, hemlocks) but I don't get as sick as I did in the past. |
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| I'd suggest you consider whether you really have the room for Acacia redolens, as it wants to get 12 feet across in fairly short time, and would need constant pruning to keep it smaller. The drought tolerance, fast spread on this and thick weed suppressing cover is the reason why it is so useful for highway landscaping, but unless you have a large slope to cover, it is not as useful for small gardens. I haven't seen this one naturalize outside of plantings where it is used along HWY 80 in Contra Coasta and Solano Counties, so I don't think it is as potentially weedy as some of the tree growing species. I suspect it does need some summer irrigation to self sow and survive, but I don't have any direct experience with the species to say for sure. |
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