Family

Fabaceae

Distribution

Confined to the summits of Ropers and Scotts Peak and perhaps other peaks of the Peak Range, E of Clermont, Qld.

Description

Spreading shrub to 1.5 m tall. Branchlets with indumentum of scattered loosely appressed hairs. Phyllodes crowded, sometimes subverticillate, on short stem-projections, ascending to erect, linear, ±straight, flat to compressed, 8–16 mm long, 0.6–0.8 mm wide, narrowed into a longish curved mucro, with sparse long ±appressed hairs, glabrescent; midrib absent or very obscure; gland 0–3 mm from base; pulvinus c. 0.5 mm long, Heads solitary, axillary, 24–30-flowered, golden yellow; peduncles 8–10 mm long, glabrous, occasionally with 1 or 2 bracts below head. Flowers 5-merous; sepals c. 1/3-united, ciliate; corolla c. 2 mm long, united to about middle, with lobes obovate, glabrous; stamens c. 5 mm long; ovary glabrous. Pods similar to those of A. conferta, to 4.5 cm long, 10 –14 (–17) mm wide; valves rather membranous, somewhat glaucous, convex over seeds. Mature seeds not seen, transverse.

Phenology

Flowers July–Aug.

Habitat

Recorded from trachyte outcrops in heath-like vegetation.

Specimens

Qld: Ropers Peak, A.R.Bean 569 (BRI); loc. id., A.R.Bean 630 (BRI); Scotts Peak, S.L.Everist 4427 (BRI); Peak Range, c. 30 km SW of Dysart, Jan. 1981, A.Podich s.n. (BRI).

Notes

Acacia arbiana is close to A. conferta, but the phyllodes are more crowded, narrower and distinctly mucronulate with normally with sparse, long, loosely appressed hairs, and it lacks stipules. Its phyllodes resemble those of A. gittinsii which has spreading hairs on the stems, some heads in racemes and longitudinal seeds.

FOA Reference

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

Author

Edited by B.R.Maslin

L.Pedley