FRANKINCENSE - ACACIA

Acacia nilotica ssp. tomentosa (Photo credit: dinesh_valke)

The nature of frankincense and the preparing of it is like this:

In size it is a small tree, and in appearance it resembles the white Egyptian Acacia, its leaves are like those of the willow, as it is called, the bloom it bears is in colour like gold, and the frankincense which comes from it oozes forth in drops like tears. 

The Egyptian thorn (Photo credit: TREEAID)

But the myrrh-tree is like the mastich-tree, although its leaves are more slender and grow thicker. It oozes myrrh when the earth is dug away from the roots, and if it is planted in fertile soil this take place twice a year, in spring and in summer; the myrrh of the spring is red, because of the dew, but that of the summer is white.

 http://www.theoi.com/Phylos/Pankhaia.html

frankincense tree (Photo credit: Alexbip)

 You haven't got to be a rocket scientist to see that these two trees are highly related and that could mean that these two area were once joined before the great catclysm that split up the earth.  People talk land bridges and I tend to think it was far closer than this given the Egyptian stuff found in many places across Australia that is largely hushed up.  We are talking about a time before time as we all know it now.  The Dreaming reaches back into those times with ceremony.

Acacia baileyana (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

ACACIA MELANOXYLON
common names: sally wattle, blackwood
type collected: R Brown, Tas, 1804.
habit: Small to relatively large tree, 8 - 30m.

Black Sally Wattle up near Tabulam NSW by Eminpee Fotography

foliage: Variable lanceolate to elliptic phyllodes, 60 - 120mm x 10 - 20mm, 3 - 5 main veins with numerous secondary nerves between and conecting them. Gland small and inconspicuous.

flowers: Creamy yellow ball flowers on racemes, flowers late winter to spring.
pods: Tightly coiled and twisted leathery pods, 50 - 120mm x 5 - 10mm, thickened margins.
seeds: Longitudinal in pod, pinkish aril wraps around seed twice, not toally encircling it.

distribution: Widespread in Sth and E Vic, coast and tablelands of NSW, also SA, Tas and Qld.

notes: Victorian Aborigenes used a hot infusion of the roasted bark to bathe rheumatic joints. Bark and twigs used as a fish poison.

Fine timber, used in cabinet and ornamental work, once used in coach and boat building, also for beer barrels, regarded as the best Australian timber for this.

Young phyllodes have given a positive test for alkaloids. (references: 1, 2, 15)

Here is a complete reference list of  the acacia here in Australia.

References to uses and properties of acacias

1. Australian medicinal plants, E V Lassak & T McCarthy, Methuen Aust, 1985
2. Useful wild plants in Australia, A & J Cribb, Fontana/ Collins, 1982
3. Wild food in Australia, A & J Cribb, Fontana/ Collins, 1987
4. Mutooroo- plant use by Aboriginal people, G Leiper, Assembly press, 1985
5. Wild food plants of Australia, T Low, Angus & Robertson, 1992
6. Bush tucker; Australia's wild food harvest, T Low, Angus & Robertson, 1991
7. Poisonous plants of Australia, S Everist, Angus & Robertson, 1981
8. Wild medicine in Australia, A & J Cribb, Fontana/ Collins, 1981
9. Bush food: Aboriginal food and herbal medicine, J Isaacs, Weldons publishign, 1987
10. Plants and people: Aboriginal uses of plants on groote eylandt, D Levitt, Aust inst of Aboriginal studies, Canberra, 1981
11. Examination of acacia species for alkaloids, E White, NZ J. Sci. & Tech., July 1957, p 718.
12. Alkaloids of the Aust. leguminosae, J Fitzgerald & A Sioumis, Aust. J. Chem., #18:433-4, 1965
13. Alkaloids of acacia, B Rovelli & G Vaugan, Aust. J. Chem., #20:1299-1300, 1967
14. Traditional bush medicine; an Aboriginal pharmacopeia, Nth. Territory Govt, 1990
15. Plants for medicines; a chemical and pharmacological survey of plants in the Aust. region, CSIRO, 1990
16. N-methyl-tetrahydroharman from acacia complanata, Johns, Lamberton & Sioumis, Aust J. Chem., #19:1539-40, 1966
17. Alkaloids of acacia baileyana, Repke & Mandell, Lloydia #36/2:211-13, 1973
18. Fijian medicinal plants, R Cambie & J Ash, CSIRO, 1994
19. Wattle, M Hitchcock, Aust Gov. printer, 1991
20. Acacias of Sth Australia, Whibley & Symon, SA Gov printer, 1992
21. Bushfires and Bushtucker, Aboriginal plant use in central Australia, P. Latz, IAD press, 1995.
    

Wattle by Eminpee Fotography

Images @ Eminpee Fotography