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Blackwood

Acacia melanoxylon · Fabaceae · all Acacia records

Your local evidence lens

Separate evidence questions, never one approval badge

Set a ZIP to compare this record with state distribution, native range, USDA hardiness, and invasive records.

A genus split is not a placement verdict. Set a ZIP to read the local documented split.

1. Fire evidence and conditions

Fire evidence: Highly flammable — location does not change the cited classification.
Fire-performance conditions: No test or rating condition is normalized.
Fire ecology context: No section-reviewed fire-ecology context is normalized.
Placement evidence: 3 source placement records; source schemes remain separate.
Evidence regions: Australian Capital Territory, Australia; Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa; Global; Mediterranean France / Provence; New Zealand; Tasmania, Australia; Victoria, Australia
Maintenance: No sourced horticultural maintenance assertion is normalized; fire-test conditions do not supply maintenance advice.

2. Why this plant is relevant here

State distribution: Documented in CA, HI.
Native range: No current cited or legacy state native range is normalized.
Introduced / established: 3 sourced range or established records; set a location to match them. This is not an invasive warning.
USDA hardiness: Documented minimum 8a; no upper limit is documented.

3. Legal, ecological, and broader status

Legal-list status: Set a location for an exact legal-list result; source silence is not clearance.
Seed-list status: Set a location to compare the separate state noxious-weed seed layer.
Reported invasive here: 2 ecological invasive reports; set a location to distinguish exact from regional context.
Broader regional context: Aggregate AK, HI, and L48 evidence is shown only as regional context, never as an exact-state finding.
Federal context: Federal designations remain separate from state legal-list results.

Keep away. Condemned as highly flammable by 2 of 3 independent primary-evidence lineages; APS Victoria's field observations disagrees. The majority direction governs — the recommendation is shown in full below.

▲ APS Victoria's field observations · fire-tested ▼ New Zealand's FENZ laboratory directory · fire-tested ▼ the INRA Avignon fire laboratory · fire-tested ◆ the Tasmania Fire Service list ◆ Time to extinguish the exotic flame: Lessons from the 202… · fire-tested

Computed class: Highly flammable (majority) — derived from the cited evidence by a published rule, never hand-assigned. Each chip above is one independent primary-evidence lineage and its direction. No plant is fireproof; condition and placement govern. Zone 0 is hardscape regardless.

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.

Blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon) — Photo: (c) Leon Perrie, some rights reserved (CC BY) (CC BY), via iNaturalist. Species-typical, not necessarily this cultivar.

Form: tree
USDA hardiness: Minimum 8a; upper limit not documented
Mature height: ~40 ft
Water need: moderate
Grows in: CA, HI
Rated in: Australian Capital Territory, Australia; Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa; Global; Mediterranean France / Provence +3
Family: Fabaceae
Evidence: 23 cited sources

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.

Current native

0

exact source areas

Current introduced

3

exact source areas

Qualified

0

doubtful or extinct source rows

3 introduced source areas · World Checklist of Vascular Plants, version 16 v16, as of 2026-06-04

California (CA)
Hawaii (HI)
Puerto Rico (PR)

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.

Plant hardiness evidence

These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.

USDA PLANTS Database — Plant Characteristics · record ACME · PLANTS Help Document 2022; characteristics cache retrieved 2026-08-23 · as of 2026-08-26

Minimum 8a · no upper limit documented · half zone precision · derived containing band

Exact source measurement: 14°F; mapped only to its containing half-zone.

Source taxon: Acacia melanoxylon · source identifier match.

Source location: PlantCharacteristics record 76690, Temperature, Minimum (°F).

Where its sources say to plant it

Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating. They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.

Fire Resisting Garden Plants for the Urban Fringe and Rur…: should be avoided in the Building Protection Zone [Texas Building Protection Zone] (mid-scale rating)
Time to extinguish the exotic flame: Lessons from the 202…: Urban zone; Table 1 and deposited raw workbook [macalister-2025-leaf-flammability] (mid-scale rating)
Canberra Plant Selector: filtered result page 2 [canberra-selector] (with its recommendation)

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.

Avoids (2)

Low Flammability Plants directory — Fire and Emergency New Zealand (plant flammability testing at Lincoln University) · 2026 · original source Primary evidence Lab-tested lineage: lincoln-nz-tree

“Moderate/high flammability”

Moderate/high flammability classification. On FENZ's high-flammability environmental weeds list (2024 DOC list).
Inflammabilités des espèces forestières méditerranéennes (Valette 1990) — INRA Station de Sylviculture méditerranéenne, Avignon (Revue Forestière Française XLII) · 1990 · original source Primary evidence Lab-tested lineage: inra-tree

“INRA inflammability note 4 of 5 (July-September maximum)” · score 4 (inra-0-5)

Monthly inflammability notes May-April: 0, 2, 4, 4, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 (epiradiator tests, INRA Avignon).

Source wording: “hautement inflammable”

Mid-scale / conditional (2)

Fire Resisting Garden Plants for the Urban Fringe and Rural Areas — Tasmania Fire Service (Chladil & Sheridan; photographs Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens) · 2017 · original source Primary evidence Expert-curated lineage: utas-tree

“Moderate Flammability”
Time to extinguish the exotic flame: Lessons from the 2021 Cape Town fire — South African Journal of Botany / University of Cape Town · South African Journal of Botany 184:1163-1173 · original source Primary evidence Lab-tested lineage: independent (UCT post-Table-Mountain-fire study)

“Didn't burn”

Official-workbook means across 50 leaf trials: fresh ignition 4.678 s, fresh sustainability 26.549 s, dry ignition 1.202 s, dry sustainability 12.413 s, and combustibility 13.876 mg DW s-1. Published Table 1 observation for the 2021 fire: Didn't burn.

Listed without a rating (17)

FLAMITS: FLAMmability plant traiTS database — Dryad / Global Ecology and Biogeography · Dryad version 9 · original source Corroboration Trait database lineage: meta-aggregator

17 cited rows from this source; its identity, lineage and tier are stated once.
- “time to flaming (s): 8.6” · score 8.6 (FLAMITS — time to flaming (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 1203; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel dead; predrying yes; device burning bench; site Clarke2014-1; sampling october. Primary study Clarke2014: Clarke, P. J., Prior, L. D., French, B. J., Vincent, B., Knox, K. J., & Bowman, D. M. (2014). Using a rainforest-flame forest mosaic to test the hypothesis that leaf and litter fuel flammability is under natural selection. Oecologia, 176, 1123-33.
- “flaming duration (s): 10.9” · score 10.9 (FLAMITS — flaming duration (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 1227; Sustainability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel dead; predrying yes; device burning bench; site Clarke2014-1; sampling october. Primary study Clarke2014: Clarke, P. J., Prior, L. D., French, B. J., Vincent, B., Knox, K. J., & Bowman, D. M. (2014). Using a rainforest-flame forest mosaic to test the hypothesis that leaf and litter fuel flammability is under natural selection. Oecologia, 176, 1123-33.
- “time to flaming (s): 21.7” · score 21.7 (FLAMITS — time to flaming (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 1251; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device burning bench; site Clarke2014-1; sampling october. Primary study Clarke2014: Clarke, P. J., Prior, L. D., French, B. J., Vincent, B., Knox, K. J., & Bowman, D. M. (2014). Using a rainforest-flame forest mosaic to test the hypothesis that leaf and litter fuel flammability is under natural selection. Oecologia, 176, 1123-33.
- “flaming duration (s): 11.1” · score 11.1 (FLAMITS — flaming duration (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 1275; Sustainability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device burning bench; site Clarke2014-1; sampling october. Primary study Clarke2014: Clarke, P. J., Prior, L. D., French, B. J., Vincent, B., Knox, K. J., & Bowman, D. M. (2014). Using a rainforest-flame forest mosaic to test the hypothesis that leaf and litter fuel flammability is under natural selection. Oecologia, 176, 1123-33.
- “time to flaming (s): 22.5” · score 22.5 (FLAMITS — time to flaming (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 3810; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device muffle furnace; site Gill1996-1; sampling march to april. Primary study Gill1996: Gill, M., & Moore, P. (1996). Ignitibility of leaves of Australian plants. Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, CSIRO Plant Industry.
- “time to flaming (s): 5.07” · score 5.07 (FLAMITS — time to flaming (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 3858; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying yes; device muffle furnace; site Gill1996-1; sampling march to april. Primary study Gill1996: Gill, M., & Moore, P. (1996). Ignitibility of leaves of Australian plants. Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, CSIRO Plant Industry.
- “time to flaming (s): 62.2” · score 62.2 (FLAMITS — time to flaming (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 9470; Ignitability measurement; plant part branches; fuel all; predrying yes; device grill; site Msweli2020-1; sampling february to november. Primary study Msweli2020: Msweli, S. T., Potts, A. J., Fritz, H., & Kraaij, T. (2020). Fire weather effects on flammability of indigenous and invasive alien plants in coastal fynbos and thicket shrublands (Cape Floristic Region). PeerJ, 8, e10161.
- “maximum flame temperature (°C): 692.95” · score 692.95 (FLAMITS — maximum flame temperature (°C))
  
  FLAMITS record 9500; Combustibility measurement; plant part branches; fuel all; predrying yes; device grill; site Msweli2020-1; sampling february to november. Primary study Msweli2020: Msweli, S. T., Potts, A. J., Fritz, H., & Kraaij, T. (2020). Fire weather effects on flammability of indigenous and invasive alien plants in coastal fynbos and thicket shrublands (Cape Floristic Region). PeerJ, 8, e10161.
- “burnt biomass (%): 98.28” · score 98.28 (FLAMITS — burnt biomass (%))
  
  FLAMITS record 9530; Consumability measurement; plant part branches; fuel all; predrying yes; device grill; site Msweli2020-1; sampling february to november. Primary study Msweli2020: Msweli, S. T., Potts, A. J., Fritz, H., & Kraaij, T. (2020). Fire weather effects on flammability of indigenous and invasive alien plants in coastal fynbos and thicket shrublands (Cape Floristic Region). PeerJ, 8, e10161.
- “time to flaming (s): 16” · score 16 (FLAMITS — time to flaming (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 9560; Ignitability measurement; plant part branches; fuel all; predrying yes; device grill; site Msweli2020-1; sampling february to november. Primary study Msweli2020: Msweli, S. T., Potts, A. J., Fritz, H., & Kraaij, T. (2020). Fire weather effects on flammability of indigenous and invasive alien plants in coastal fynbos and thicket shrublands (Cape Floristic Region). PeerJ, 8, e10161.
- “maximum sample temperature (°C): 761.45” · score 761.45 (FLAMITS — maximum sample temperature (°C))
  
  FLAMITS record 9590; Combustibility measurement; plant part branches; fuel all; predrying yes; device grill; site Msweli2020-1; sampling february to november. Primary study Msweli2020: Msweli, S. T., Potts, A. J., Fritz, H., & Kraaij, T. (2020). Fire weather effects on flammability of indigenous and invasive alien plants in coastal fynbos and thicket shrublands (Cape Floristic Region). PeerJ, 8, e10161.
- “burnt biomass (%): 98.03” · score 98.03 (FLAMITS — burnt biomass (%))
  
  FLAMITS record 9620; Consumability measurement; plant part branches; fuel all; predrying yes; device grill; site Msweli2020-1; sampling february to november. Primary study Msweli2020: Msweli, S. T., Potts, A. J., Fritz, H., & Kraaij, T. (2020). Fire weather effects on flammability of indigenous and invasive alien plants in coastal fynbos and thicket shrublands (Cape Floristic Region). PeerJ, 8, e10161.
- “flammability value: 4” · score 4 (FLAMITS — flammability value)
  
  FLAMITS record 13357; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Valette1990-1; sampling june to september. Primary study Valette1990: Valette, J.-C. (1990). Flammabilities of Mediterranean forest species. Effects on the combustibility of the forest communities inflammabilités des espèces forestières méditerranéennes. Conséquences sur la combustibilité des formations forestières. Revue forestière française, 42, 76-92.
- “flammability value: 5” · score 5 (FLAMITS — flammability value)
  
  FLAMITS record 13358; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Valette1990-1; sampling june to september. Primary study Valette1990: Valette, J.-C. (1990). Flammabilities of Mediterranean forest species. Effects on the combustibility of the forest communities inflammabilités des espèces forestières méditerranéennes. Conséquences sur la combustibilité des formations forestières. Revue forestière française, 42, 76-92.
- “estimated burnt biomass (%): 61” · score 61 (FLAMITS — estimated burnt biomass (%))
  
  FLAMITS record 14922; Consumability measurement; plant part branches; fuel all; predrying yes; device grill; site Potts2022-1; sampling ND. Primary study Potts2022: Potts, E., Tng, D., Apgaua, D., Curran, T. J., Engert, J., & Laurance, S. G. (2022). Growth form and functional traits influence the shoot flammability of tropical rainforest species. Forest Ecology and Management, 522, 120485.
- “burning duration (s): 35.32” · score 35.32 (FLAMITS — burning duration (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 15046; Sustainability measurement; plant part branches; fuel all; predrying yes; device grill; site Potts2022-1; sampling ND. Primary study Potts2022: Potts, E., Tng, D., Apgaua, D., Curran, T. J., Engert, J., & Laurance, S. G. (2022). Growth form and functional traits influence the shoot flammability of tropical rainforest species. Forest Ecology and Management, 522, 120485.
- “maximum sample temperature (°C): 754” · score 754 (FLAMITS — maximum sample temperature (°C))
  
  FLAMITS record 15170; Combustibility measurement; plant part branches; fuel all; predrying yes; device grill; site Potts2022-1; sampling ND. Primary study Potts2022: Potts, E., Tng, D., Apgaua, D., Curran, T. J., Engert, J., & Laurance, S. G. (2022). Growth form and functional traits influence the shoot flammability of tropical rainforest species. Forest Ecology and Management, 522, 120485.

Fire-resistant trees instead

Quaking aspen
Populus tremuloides

American sweetgum
Liquidambar styraciflua

White ash
Fraxinus americana

Lombardy poplar
Populus nigra 'Italica'

Boxelder
Acer negundo

Thornless honeylocust
Gleditsia triacanthos

Fire-resistant trees listed above

Last verified 2026-08-23. JSON (CC BY 4.0)

Profiles: USDA PLANTS · GBIF · iNaturalist · Wikidata · ITIS

Acacia melanoxylon (Blackwood). FireApproved. https://fireapproved.com/plants/acacia-melanoxylon/. Last verified 2026-08-23.