WATTLE

Acacias of Australia

Print Fact Sheet

Acacia araneosa Whibley

Common Name

Spidery Wattle, Balcanoona Wattle

Family

Fabaceae

Distribution

Restricted from near Balcanoona to Arkaroola, North Flinders Ra., S.A.

Description

Wispy tree 3–8 m high. Branchlets slender, flexuose, red-brown, glabrous. Phyllodes distant, pendulous, thickly filiform, usually terete to subterete or ±quadrangular, 18–35 cm long, sometimes to 69 cm, usually 1–2 mm wide, delicately narrowed at apex, glabrous, sometimes scurfy, obscurely 4-nerved in all; pulvinus 2–4 mm long. Inflorescences racemose; raceme axes 3.5–9.5 cm long, glabrous; peduncles 7–10 mm long, glabrous; heads globular, 50–70-flowered, yellow; bracteoles peltate, golden-fimbriolate. Flowers 5-merous; sepals united almost to their apices. Pods linear, somewhat constricted between seeds, to 14.5 cm long, 4–6 mm wide, firmly chartaceous to thinly coriaceous-crustaceous, pruinose, glabrous. Seeds ±longitudinal, elliptic, c. 4.5 mm long, dull to slightly shiny, black; funicle 3/4 encircling seed in a single fold, red-brown; aril clavate.

Habitat

Grows in calcareous soil on hills and ridges associated with Eucalyptus gillii and/or Triodia irritans.

Specimens

S.A.: Nudlamutana Well, c. 15 km NNE of Balcanoona, D.J.E.Whibley 3888 (AD, PERTH).

Notes

A putative hybrid with A. rivalis occurs within the main population of A. araneosa near the type locality; it is characterised by flat phyllodes 1–3 mm wide (e.g. D.J.E.Whibley 2173, PERTH).

A member of the ‘Acacia microbotrya group’ characterised by a distinctive cobwebby habit and very long, narrow phyllodes. These features are similar to those of A. aphanoclada, a W.A. member of the unrelated ‘A. victoriae group’.

FOA Reference

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

Author

B.R.Maslin