I am trying to identify the plants on my property. My neighbour indicated a particular bush I was looking at was an "Acasha". When I put that to the WEB it didn't bring up anything to do with bushes. So I likely have the spelling wrong. It is a bush that is about the size and nature of a Lillac and produces many blooms. I think during the Spring. It's leave is produced in multiple opposing sets of tongue shaped leaves (green) with one leave at the end of the sub-branch. The sets vary in number but usually in the 7-9 pairs and always with one leave at the end of the set. I haven't been able to find a good site to id plants, trees and bushes here in British Columbia Canada. Can any of you help me out? I would appreciate your generousity. Bryan
Hi Bryan, The plant you are looking for is spelled Acacia. Common horticultural varieties include: Acacia baileyana Acacia baileyana 'Purpurea' Acacia dealbata and Acacia pravissima. Of those four, only Acacia pravissima has tongue-shaped leaves. Does it look like this image from Charles Sturt University in Australia? If not, then it might be something that is not as common as the above four - would you be able to send us a picture of it in the springtime with blossoms? Our contact address is here. Kind regards, Daniel
Bryan replied via email: Greetings Daniel, Thank you very much for your quick response and information. I did spell it wrong. The image you sent isn't exactly right. The leaf set in your image have far greater numbers of opposing leafs than in those on this tree and the leaf is a little different. I have scanned in the leaf itself. I will send a picture in the Spring when the flower come on the tree. Hopefully this will do for now. It spreads like wildfire.... Like sumac but more aggressive it sends up shoot everywhere. It also has a pod of seeds. My neighbour has a tree and from that tree it appear shoots are coming up in my grass and along the entire length of my property. Today, I was cleaning out the yard and noticed a few plants on the other side of my property as well. I am planning out the garden for next year and wonder what I should to in controlling this bush. I think from what my neighbour says I'd like to keep a few of these bushes but don't want them overtaking the entire garden. Thanks again for you help... I'll go through the names you have provided me on the Internet and see what I come up with.
Aha! A picture is worth a thousand words. The plant you have in your yard is almost certainly Robinia viscosa, commonly known as the "clammy locust". It is often confused with Robinia pseudoacacia, which is commonly known as "false acacia". An easy way to distinguish clammy locust from false acacia is that clammy locust is glandular-pubescent on the young stems and rachides of the leaves. There seems to be some evidence of that from the picture you submitted - note the hairs along the central axis (rachis) of the leaf. Clammy locust is a zone 3 plant, so it will do quite well in Nelson (that was one of the things that puzzled me about my other suggestions - the true acacias would not be hardy in Nelson). The fact that it is suckering is a bit worrisome. The best way to control it is to yank the new shoots out of the ground every year - they should come out easily. However, if you leave them for more than a few seasons, they will become established and much more difficult to remove. I suggest only keeping one plant in your garden, to reduce the amount of maintenance that this plant will require.
