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Pearl wattle is a tree with a conditional fire-retardant recommendation from Australian Plants Society Victoria.
Australian Plants Society Victoria lists Acacia podalyriifolia as Queensland Silver Wattle. Its fire-retardant category describes plants that resist the first wave of a bushfire but may burn once dried out. That qualification makes drying part of the decision; the favorable listing does not describe foliage that cannot ignite.
The Tasmanian garden-plant brochure uses Acacia podalyrifolia and Mt Morgan Wattle. It assigns moderate flammability and advises avoiding plants in that group in the Building Protection Zone. The zone's dimensions vary with the site. These plants should not dominate the garden, and maintenance should remove dead material before it accumulates.
These descriptions support a conditional view of this wattle. The fire-retardant category in the Society's list does not cancel the Tasmanian siting advice or the need to manage accumulated fuel. A dense planting against a house would conflict with the brochure's advice, despite the favorable listing elsewhere.
Form
tree
Rated in
Global; Tasmania, Australia; Victoria, Australia
On this lot
1. Fire evidence and conditions
Fire evidence
Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
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.
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)
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.
6 cited rows from this source; its identity, lineage and tier are stated once.
Primary study Gill1996: Gill, M., & Moore, P. (1996). Ignitibility of leaves of Australian plants. Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, CSIRO Plant Industry.
Shared row context: Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; device muffle furnace; site Gill1996-1; sampling march to april.
“time to flaming (s): 16.49”
FLAMITS record 3811; predrying no.
“time to flaming (s): 4.35”
FLAMITS record 3859; predrying yes.
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.
