Hardiness zones
Sunset 8, 9, 12-24
USDA 8 - 11
Landscape Use: For xeric landscape design themes only as a background, screen, informal hedge, single or group of multiple trunk small trees.
Form & Character: Evergreen, VERY STIFF, upright and rigid to spreading with age, large shrub to small tree, dry.
Growth Habit: Stiffly branched, slow growth rate to 20 to 25' with some what less than equal spread, wood is brittle.
Foliage/texture: Small, narrow, grayish green phyllodes, sometimes glaucous, narrow, linear to lanceolate less than than 3" in length, new phyllodes are bronzy brown in color; medium fine texture.
Flowers & fruits: Mulga flowers are rod shaped with prominent yellow stamens. Fruit in spring are a small flattened pod and are generally nondescript.
Seasonal color: Mulga flowers episodically during the warm season, mostly heavily during fall.
Temperature: Heat loving, cold tolerant to 15oF.
Light: Full sun
Soil: Mulga is tolerant of alkaline soils, although the phyllodes sometimes yellow in soils of high alkalinity. Chelate micronutrient fertilizers will correct this problem quickly but a rarely required.
Watering: Mulga needs little additional water from irrigation after establishment. It certainly requires no supplemental water during the winter months and only every one to two weeks during the summer to sustain it's great performance in Phoenix. More frequent irrigations will dramatically increase the growth rate and eventual size of mulga.
Pruning: Very little needed except to give shape and to raise the crown in situations where a small upright tree form is desired.
Propagation: Seed, acid or mechanical scarification needed. Semi hardwood cuttings are successful during the summer months only.
Disease and pests: None
Additional comments: This is a tough (a la the pirate "Arrrrrrrr") large background shrub or small tree for xeric landscapes and/or restricted urban spaces because of it's drought stress and heat stress tolerance.
