Family

Fabaceae

Distribution

Most common in the area from Wiluna east to the Gibson Desert; less common in the Pilbara.

Description

Shrubs mostly 2–4 m tall or trees to 7 m. Branchlets resin-ribbed at extremities, the ribs red-brown, light brown or yellow and absent from mature and sometimes penultimate branchlets, the resin translucent and normally forming a thin veneer on the ribs (occasionally forming a slightly layer, especially on young plants). New shoots: youngest 1–3 phyllodes either densely appressed puberulous with white or light golden hairs covering entire surface, or striate with white, appressed hairs confined to between the nerves, resinous marginal nerve pronounced. Phyllodes narrowly elliptic, narrowed at apex, mostly 3.5–5.5 cm long and 5–10 mm wide with l: w = 5–7.5, straight or rarely shallowly recurved, discrete resinous marginal nerve red-brown, light brown or yellow, most evident on youngest phyllodes. Sepals (few seen) oblong, united at base, ¼ length of petals. Pods (few seen) 15–25 mm long, 7–12 mm wide.

Specimens

W.A.: Gibson Desert, 75 km SE of Mt Everard on ‘Gunbarrel Highway’ to Warburton, B.R. Maslin 5658 (PERTH); Lorna Glen Conservation Park (ca 150 km ENE of Wiluna), 3 km W of No. 9 Well, 19 km due SW of old homestead building, B.R. Maslin, J. Miller & J.E. Reid BRM 9314 (PERTH).

Notes

A few specimens from the vicinity of Wiluna can be difficult to distinguish from some plants of the poorly defined A. mulganeura (variant 2), see this entity for discussion.

Specimens with generally shorter than normal phyllodes are discussed by B.R.Maslin & J.E.Reid, Nuytsia 22: 188 (2012). It seems unlikely that there is any taxonomic significance to this variation.

FOA Reference

Flora of Australia Project

Author

B.R.Maslin