- Acacia forests are usually dominated by a single species.Wayne Levin/Photodisc/Getty Images
Acacia is a genus of plants that occurs naturally on continents other than Europe and Antarctica, and it contains more than 1,500 species. Australia is home to 50 forest-forming species of acacia, or wattle, trees. According to the World Wildlife Foundation, 21 percent, or 405,252,826 acres, of Australia is forested. Acacia forests cover 25.7 million acres, and account for 7 percent of the continent's total forestland. The largest Acacia forests in Australia are in Queensland and Western Australia. - Queensland is home to the most acreage of acacia forests and the largest diversity of acacia species in Australia. The province has approximately 15 million acres of acacia forest, or approximately 60 percent of the country's total. The acacia forests of central and central west Queensland are home to 13 dominant species of the genus, which co-occur with eucalyptus, shrubs and grassy plants. The acacia forests of southern Queensland are dominated by 10 species, including Acacia ambagei, Acacia rhodoxylon and Acacia microsperma.
- There are roughly 3.7 million acres of acacia forests in Australia's Northern Territory. All of these acres occur in the one large patch of acacia forestland located in the north central part of the province, just south of the northern peninsula. The acacia forests of the Northern Territory are dominated by one species, Acacia shirleyi. The only other dominant species of the genus to occur in the Northern Territory is Acacia crassicarpa, though the proliferation of this plant is limited to the dunes of the peninsula, and does not occur en masse in the acacia forests of the Northern Territory.
- New South Wales abuts Queensland on the province's southern border. Some of Queensland's vast acacia forests spill over this southern border into New South Wales. An approximate total of 3.3 million acres of acacia forestland is present in New South Wales. There are eight dominant acacia species in the forests of NSW, among them Acacia pendula, Acacia salicina and Acacia aneura. Chenopod shrubs are common in the acacia forests of NSW. A chenopod is any plant of the goosefoot family. Plants of the goosefoot family include beets and spinach.
- Though Western Australia has the fourth most total acres -- approximately 2,774,993 -- of acacia forestland in Australia, it is home to the second highest diversity of acacia species in the country. Acacia forests in Western Australia are concentrated in the center and center-west of the province, and contain nine dominant species of the genus. These species are Acacai aneura, Acacia coriacea, Acacia eremaea, Acacia victoriae, Acacia ramulosa, Acacia linophylla, Acacia sclerosperma, Acacia rostellifera and Acacia papyrocarpa. Eucalyptus and callitris plants also occur in the acacia forests of Western Australia.
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