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Mulga’s litter has been tested for combustibility, but the result does not establish that the tree is fire resistant.
Mulga, Acacia aneura, is a tree in the Fabaceae family. Dryad and Global Ecology and Biogeography’s FLAMITS database reports an energy flux of 0.17 kilowatts per square metre for its litter, measured on a burning bench. The measurement comes from Scarff and Westoby’s 2006 study of leaf litter flammability in semi-arid Australian woodlands.
Energy flux describes the rate of energy transfer per unit area. It is a measurement of burning behaviour, not a fire-resistance grade. The distinction matters because testing litter addresses a particular fuel under particular experimental conditions. That number alone cannot tell a gardener how readily a living mulga tree will ignite or how it will behave during a wildfire.
FLAMITS preserves the experimental context of its measurements and does not impose a common rating threshold across unlike variables, devices and plant parts. Calling 0.17 “low” or “safe” would therefore add a judgement that the database does not make. For someone considering mulga near a home, the test offers a fact about its litter’s combustibility, but it does not justify choosing the tree for fire resistance.
Form
tree
Rated in
Global
On this lot
1. Fire evidence and conditions
Fire evidence
Mixed evidence — location does not change the cited classification.
Fire-performance conditions
Fire ecology context
Placement evidence
Evidence regions
Global
Maintenance
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Documented in HI.
Native range
Introduced / established
1 sourced range or established record. This is not an invasive warning.
USDA hardiness
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
Legal-list status
Seed-list status
Reported invasive here
Broader regional context
Federal context
How to read this page
The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.
The evidence
Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself
(a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or
republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.
Listed without a rating (2)Corroboration (2 rows from 1 source)
2 cited rows from this source; its identity, lineage and tier are stated once.
Primary study Scarff2006: Scarff, F. R., & Westoby, M. (2006). Leaf litter flammability in some semi-arid Australian woodlands. Functional Ecology, 20, 745-752.
Shared row context: plant part litter; fuel all; predrying no; device burning bench; site Scarff2006-1; sampling ND.
