Acacia barrettiorum Lewington & Maslin
Acacia barrettiorum Lewington & Maslin
Barrett’s Wattle
Fabaceae
Occurs in Kimberley region, W.A., where it is restricted to two, small, disjunct populations in the Prince Regent Nature Reserve.
Glabrous shrub 1–2.5 m high. Branchlets bearing scars where phyllodes have fallen. Stipules mostly caducous, inconspicuous, 0.2–0.3 mm long. Phyllodes crowded, patent, triangular to oblong-triangular with broad, sessile, truncate base, 1.5–3 mm long, 1–3 mm wide, terminated by conspicuous, upwardly inflected, setose mucro 0.5–2 mm long; longitudinal nerves indistinct, 3–7 per face; gland absent or inconspicuous. Inflorescences simple, 1 per axil; peduncles 4–7 mm long, resinous, ebracteate at base; heads globular, 30–40-flowered, light golden; bracteoles c. 2 mm long, acuminate and slightly exserted in buds. Flowers 5-merous; sepals ±free, narrowly linear. Pods narrowly linear, 3–6 cm long, 2–3 mm wide, firmly chartaceous to thinly coriaceous, resinous, dark red-brown, finely longitudinally nerved. Seeds longitudinal, oblong, 3–4 mm long, ±shiny, black; aril terminal and white.
Grows in shallow sand over sandstone, often near creeks in fire-protected areas, in low shrubland often with Triodia.
W.A.: Kimberley Region [precise localities withheld for conservation reasons], R.L.Barrett & M.D.Barrett RLB 3892 (DNA, NSW, NT, PERTH) and R.L.Barrett & M.D.Barrett RLB 3920 (K, MEL, PERTH).
A distinctive species with no obvious close relatives; possibly distantly related to members of the ‘A. deltoidea’ group which differ most obviously in differently shaped, pungent phyllodes, see M.A.Lewington and B.R.Maslin, Nuytsia 19(1): 66–67 (2009) for discussion. Superficially similar to A. perpusilla in having globular heads and very small plurinerved phyllodes terminated by a bristle-like mucro; see B.R.Maslin, M.D.Barrett & R.L.Barrett, Nuytsia 23: 575 (2013) for notes.
Flora of Australia Project
B.R.Maslin
J.Reid
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