I beg to differ too, David, Mimosa IS wattle. It was imported from Australia in the 18th century and colonised in the south of France which is warm enough for it. There are very few species of it in France, not the 500 and some which we have in Australia. There is also another tree called "acacia" in French which has got similar, but bigger size leaves, but a completely different flower. that one grows in other regions of France. I quote from a small book called "A field guide to Victorian wattles": "Wattles belong to the genus Acacia, and early settlers originally applied the name "wattle" to those species with pliant branches suitable for building "wattle and daub" huts.....A few Australian wattles are grown in other parts of the world especially in South Africa and along the Riviera in southern Europe where the "Silver Wattle" is known locally as "Mimosa" We (the French, I mean) also have quite a lot of eucalypts in the south, and so do the Spaniards, all of which grew from imported specimens brought back by naturalists who sailed to Australia in the 18-19th century. Josephine Bonaparte was renowned for her encouragemnet to botanists and their imports, and she loved to plant anything that looked like it would grow in France!
Yours, a lifetime long love of eucalypts and wattles, now in heaven! Helene, the froggy from Melbourne >I think you will find that MIMOSA is the same as wattle. Or it is almost >the same - near enough. >Although it might LOOK similar in flower, it is by no means a member of >the Acacia family :) David in Ballarat Find local movie times and trailers on Yahoo! Movies. http://au.movies.yahoo.com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
