WATTLE

Acacias of Australia

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Acacia caroleae Pedley

Family

Fabaceae

Distribution

Widespread in inland south-eastern Qld and north-eastern N.S.W. between Moura and Gilgandra.

Description

Shrub or fastigiate tree to 7 m high, multistemmed. Bark corrugated, fissured, dark grey. Branchlets angular, pinkish to dull purplish red, sometimes mealy, glabrous, often resinous. Phyllodes linear, flat, ±straight to shallowly incurved, 5–14 (–21) cm long, 1.5–4 (–6.5) mm wide, coriaceous, scurfy, glabrous; minor nerves c. 8 per mm, inconspicuous, parallel, not anastomosing; midnerve ±evident; gland 1, rudimentary, basal, to 1.5 mm above pulvinus. Inflorescences short racemes 1–20 mm long. Spikes 1.2–2 (–2.8) cm long, golden. Flowers 5-merous; calyx 0.5–1.1 mm long, dissected to 1/4, sparsely hairy at base and apex; corolla 1.2–1.8 mm long, ±glabrous; ovary glabrous or with apical hairs. Pods linear, raised over seeds, 6–8 cm long, wrinkled, glabrous. Seeds longitudinal, oblong-elliptic, 4–4.5 mm long, dark brownish black; pleurogram slightly paler, open, without halo; areole brownish black.

Phenology

Flowers mainly Aug.–Oct.

Habitat

Grows in sandy, often alluvial soils, usually in open eucalypt forests and woodlands often dominated by Callitris, and frequently in disturbed areas.

Specimens

Qld: ‘Alice Wells’, on N boundary of Mt Playfair Stn, D.F.Blaxell 1466 & J.Armstrong (BRI, MEL, NSW); 14.2 km N of Tara, N.Hall H78/29 (NSW); 15 km ESE of Inglewood, A.N.Rodd 4113 (BRI, MEL, NSW). N.S.W.: 4.8 km along Forest Way Rd, S of Narrabri, N.Hall H 84/53 (NSW).

Notes

Closely allied to A. doratoxylon which usually, but not always, has broader (2–8 mm wide), more curved and brighter green phyllodes (the phyllodes often being slightly narrower, straighter and more bluish- or grey-green in A. caroleae), and often has longer flower spikes (to 35 mm long). Also related to A. granitica which has almost sessile spikes, and to A. burrowii which has broader phyllodes, mostly shorter calyces and longer corollas, but it lacks the broad juvenile phyllodes of the latter.

FOA Reference

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

Author

Dr M.D.Tindale and Dr P.G.Kodela with the assistance of M.Bedward, S.J.Davies, C.Herscovitch, D.A.Keith and/or D.A.Morrison

Minor edits by B.R.Maslin & J.Rogers