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Sydney golden wattle’s measured leaf ignition time alone does not establish that it is fire resistant.
This shrub, also known as Acacia longifolia, had a time to flaming of 12.42 seconds in a test of live leaves. The leaves were not predried, and the measurement came from a muffle furnace test in a 2013 study by Murray and colleagues, with sampling from March to April.
Time to flaming measures how long a sample takes to begin flaming under the test conditions. It describes ignition, not the amount of heat released after ignition or the behaviour of an entire shrub during a fire. The live condition of the leaves, their preparation and the heating device all belong with the result. Without those details, a precise number can sound much broader than the experiment it describes.
The FLAMITS database, published through Dryad and Global Ecology and Biogeography, preserves that experimental context and does not impose a single rating threshold across unlike measurements. Its treatment gives no basis for turning 12.42 seconds into a resistant or flammable grade. For someone choosing garden plants, this is useful information about tested leaves, but it does not settle whether Sydney golden wattle is a fire-resistant choice.
Form
shrub
Region
Australia
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
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
1 ecological invasive report.
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.
Native and introduced range evidence
These are exact U.S. botanical-area records from the cited range source. Native and
introduced describe biogeographic relationship, not fire performance or planting approval.
Doubtful and extinct rows stay visible but do not count as current presence.
The lossless worldwide derivative is retained once in the research corpus; object pages repeat only exact U.S. areas needed by the local lens. The JSON twin carries the same page assertions.
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 (5)Corroboration (5 rows from 1 source)
5 cited rows from this source; its identity, lineage and tier are stated once.
“time to flaming (s): 12.42”
FLAMITS record 9649; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device muffle furnace; site Murray2013-1; sampling march to april. Primary study Murray2013: Murray, B. R., Hardstaff, L. K., & Phillips, M. L. (2013). Differences in leaf flammability, leaf traits and flammability-trait relationships between native and exotic plant species of dry sclerophyll forest. PLoS One, 8, e79205.
Primary study Murray2023: Murray, B. R., Hawthorne, T., Curran, T. J., Krix, D. W., Wallace, M. I., Young, K., ... & Webb, J. K. (2023). Shoot flammability patterns among plant species of the wildlandurban interface in the fire-prone Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area. International Journal of Wildland Fire, Online early.
Shared row context: plant part branches; fuel all; predrying yes; device grill; site Murray2023-1; sampling ND.