Acacia curranii Maiden
WATTLE
Acacias of Australia
Common Name
Curly-bark Wattle
Family
Fabaceae
Distribution
Disjunct distribution, occurring near Guralmundi, Darling Downs District, Qld, and at Shepherds Hill and Kilparney, South Western Plains, N.S.W.
Description
Shrub to 3 m high, multistemmed. Bark ‘Minni Ritchi’, maroon or grey. Branchlets angular towards apices, maroon-grey, ±silky-pubescent or subglabrous. Young shoots with appressed, yellow hairs. Phyllodes erect, linear, subterete or flattened, (5–) 8.5–18 cm long, usually 0.5–1.5 mm wide, thick, longitudinally striate with c. 25 closely parallel nerves, usually ±shallowly grooved along midline between several raised nerves, silky (especially in groove and between nerves) to subglabrous; gland 1, basal, to 2.3 mm above pulvinus. Spikes obloid, 0.4–1.2 cm long, golden. Flowers 5-merous; calyx 0.9–1.3 mm long, dissected for 3/10–5/8, densely pubescent on lobes; corolla 1.3–1.8 mm long, dissected for 1/3–1/2, with lobes pubescent and margins papillose; ovary densely pubescent. Pods linear, flat, ±straight-sided to slightly constricted between seeds, 4–7 cm long, 2–3.5 mm wide, firmly chartaceous, with loosely matted hairs. Seeds longitudinal, ±narrow oblong-elliptic, 3–3.3 mm long, dark brown; pleurogram U-shaped, with yellowish halo; areole depressed, greyish brown.
Phenology
Flowers Aug. & Sept.
Habitat
Near Guralmundi it grows in poorly drained soils over sandstone, while at Shepherds Hill and Kilparney it grows in skeletal soil on igneous hills.
Specimens
Qld: 10.6 km W from Gurulmundi turnoff on Wandoan–Miles road, I.B.Armitage 1453 (NSW); 3 miles [4.8 km] W of Gurulmundi on Dividing Ra., L.Pedley 877 (BRI, NSW). N.S.W.: ‘Mt Solitary’, Kilparney, D.Johnston 8132 (NSW); Shepherds Hill, J.Pickard 3508 (A, AD, BRI, CANB, G, L, UC, US).
Notes
The locality ‘Cobar’ for the type specimen is rather doubtful, as material of A. curranii has not been collected there again, or between Cobar and Shepherds Hill or Kilparney. A broad (to c. 4 mm wide), flat phyllode variant occurs E of Hillston, N.S.W., e.g. Wollongong Gap, 35 km E of Hillston, J.Brickhill 6 (NSW); Monia Gap Stn, J.Pickard 4223 (AD, BRI, CANB, CHR, E, G, K, MEL, MO, NE, NSW, NY, PERTH, PRE, UNSW).
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 J.Rogers
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