Acacia blayana Tindale & Court
WATTLE
Acacias of Australia
Common Name
Blay’s Wattle
Family
Fabaceae
Distribution
Occurs on eastern side of Great Dividing Ra. in Wadbilliga Natl Park, South Coast, N.S.W.
Description
Tree to 25 m high; d.b.h. to 36 cm. Bark dark grey. Branchlets terete, angular towards apices, green, brown or purplish, mostly pruinose, glabrous except puberulous towards apices. Young foliage-tips whitish to grey or yellowish, hairy. Leaves coriaceous, glaucous to subglaucous; petiole above pulvinus 1.3–4.5 cm long, slightly flattened vertically, with an often slightly elongated gland near lowest pair of pinnae; rachis 1–6 cm long, with orbicular jugary glands; interjugary glands absent; pinnae (2–) 3 or 4 pairs, 4–8 (–9.5) cm long; pinnules (6–) 12–14 pairs, very narrowly elliptic-oblong, (10–) 15–34 mm long, (1.5–) 2.5–4 mm wide, with a prominent nerve closer to upper margin (in upper 1/3) and 2 ±parallel minor nerves not reaching margin, and with white, ±appressed, straight or curved hairs on both surfaces, with margin often dark red in upper 1/3 of pinnule, and apex broadly rounded or truncate. Inflorescences in axillary or terminal false-panicles; peduncles 3–5 (–7.5) mm long, glabrous. Heads 12–30-flowered, golden. Pods 4–11.5 cm long, 7–11 mm wide, coriaceous, brown, bluish or purplish brown, with paler margin, glabrous.
Phenology
Flowers Sept., Oct.; fruits Dec.–Feb.
Habitat
Grows in skeletal rocky soils, in steep mountainous country, in almost pure stands or with Acacia mearnsii, and in tall open forest with eucalypts and Tristaniopsis laurina (see D.J.Boland & S.J.Midgley, Acacia ‘blayana’ A.B.Court - a new Australian tree with a future?, Forest Genetic Resources Information No. 12: 21–23, 1983). Grows at 200–600 m alt.
Specimens
N.S.W.: Galoon Ck, Wadbilliga Natl Park, D.J.Boland 1888 (CANB, NSW); 15.5 km along Nelsons Ck fire trail, G.Butler 1368 (CANB); 15.6 km from Yankeys Gap, E.G.Cole 1474 (CANB, NSW); c. 1 km E of junction of Yankeys Ck and Brogo R., P.Cope CBG8203158 (CANB, NSW); N of Bemboka on the Nelsons Ck Trail, B.V.Gunn BG621 (FRI, NSW).
Notes
Acacia blayana belongs to a group of species in sect. Botrycephalae characterised by longer and wider pinnules than the majority of taxa in this section.
FOA Reference
Data derived from Flora of Australia Volumes 11A (2001), 11B (2001) and 12 (1998), products of ABRS, ©Commonwealth of Australia
Author
M.D.Tindale, P.G.Kodela
Minor edits by B.R.Maslin & J.Reid
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