Family

Fabaceae

Distribution

Known from only three widely separated localities on or near the Great Dividing Ra. in north-eastern Qld, namely, the Iron Range Mining area on Cape York, around Mt Janet, and from the Walsh R./Price Ck junction.

Description

Tree to 8 m high with pendulous branches. Bark rough and grey at base of trunks, smooth and mottled above. Branchlets lenticellate, glabrous. Phyllodes narrowly elliptic to lanceolate, sometimes oblanceolate, straight to shallowly falcate, 7.5–15 (–18) cm long, 5–20 (–35) mm wide, acuminate, thinly coriaceous, glabrous, with (4–) 5–10 distant main nerves and longitudinally reticulate in between; gland 1–2 mm above pulvinus, with sometimes an additional gland near middle of phyllode. Inflorescences rudimentary 2-headed racemes, 1 or 2 per axil; raceme axes 1–2 mm long; peduncles 3–12 (–16) mm long, glabrous; heads globular, 3.5–4 mm diam., 20–30-flowered, pale yellow. Flowers 5-merous; sepals united at base. Pods strongly constricted between seeds and readily breaking into 1-seeded indehiscent segments, flat but slightly raised over seeds along the midline, to 10 cm long, (5–) 6–11 mm wide, thinly coriaceous, ±sparingly reticulate, glabrous, margins very narrowly winged. Seeds longitudinal, oblong-elliptic, c. 5 mm long, 3 mm wide, dull, dark brown; funicle not or scarcely thickened into a clavate aril.

Habitat

Grows in Eucalyptus cullenii and E. normantonensis woodland.

Specimens

Qld: 12.1 km SE of Mt Janet on survey road along Dividing Ra., J.R.Clarkson 5507 (BRI, K, MEL, PERTH); 12 km SE of Mt Janet on survey road along Dividing Ra., J.R.Clarkson 6288 (BRI, DNA, K, MEL, NSW, PERTH).

Notes

Phyllode width is variable, often on a single plant. Young plants may have phyllodes to 18 cm long.

Related to A. excelsa which has normally shorter phyllodes with fewer nerves per face and exarillate seeds. Phyllodes often superficially very similar to those of A. hylonoma which is most readily distinguished by its gland 3–15 mm above the pulvinus and its pods which are not or scarcely constricted between the seeds. Also related to A. johannis.

FOA Reference

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

Author

R.S.Cowan, B.R.Maslin

Edited by B.R.Maslin