Family

Fabaceae

Distribution

Occurs near the Irwin R., W.A.

Description

Shrub. Branchlets terete, appressed-puberulous. Stipules persistent, acicular, straight, 1–2.5 mm long, puberulous. Phyllodes sessile, patent, oblong, subquadrate or oblong-elliptic, asymmetric, recurved, 4–5 mm long, 2–3 mm wide, pungent, rigid, glabrous, with 3 or 4 distant raised main nerves; gland single, 1.5–3 mm above pulvinus. Inflorescences simple; peduncles (fruiting) 5–9 mm long, glabrous; heads globular (judging from flower scars on receptacles). Flowers unknown. Pods linear, raised over seeds, straight, to 5 cm long, 4 mm wide, coriaceous, very sparsely appressed-puberulous or glabrous, brown except for a longitudinal medial light-coloured line. Seeds rounded, turgid, 2.5 mm long, mottled; aril subapical, helmet-shaped.

Specimens

W.A.: Murchison R., 1877, F.Mueller s.n. (MEL, PERTH): this locality is probably an error; the material is possibly part of the type collection.

Notes

As there appears to be no Mueller type at MEL the K specimen (which is ex MEL and annotated by Mueller) is treated as the holotype.

This description is based on the two collections cited above; there are no modern collections of A. adnata that agree with the type. Acacia adnata appears to be very closely related to A. comans and its phyllode shape and size closely resemble the typical variant of that species which is (somewhat arbitrarily) distinguished by its minutely pilose phyllode nerves and the dense, patent hairs on its branchlets and pods. Further material of A. adnata, particularly flowers, is needed in order to ascertain its status and relationship to A. comans.

FOA Reference

Data derived from Flora of Australia Volumes 11A (2001), 11B (2001) and 12 (1998), products of ABRS, ©Commonwealth of Australia

Author

Minor edits by B.R.Maslin

R.S.Cowan, M.A.Lewington