Common Name

Scrub Ironbark, Rosewood (Moreton district)

Family

Fabaceae

Distribution

Occurs mainly from near Boonah N to near Rockhampton, Qld, with a few scattered occurrences further N to near Bowen.

Description

Tree usually to c. 10 m high; canopy dense. Branchlets pendulous, slightly flexuose, normally glabrous. Phyllodes narrowly oblong to narrowly elliptic, 4–15 cm long, 6–20 mm wide, sometimes 35 mm wide (especially young plants), somewhat coriaceous, normally glabrous; midrib and marginal nerves prominent; lateral nerves rather obscure and openly anastomosing; gland 0–10 mm above pulvinus, circular to oblong, 0.5–0.7 mm long. Inflorescences 2–8-headed racemes, often appearing as axillary clusters; raceme axes 1–3 (-15) mm long, puberulous; peduncles (0.5–) 1–2.5 (–3) cm long, glabrous or sparsely puberulous; heads globular, 20–40-flowered, cream. Flowers 5-merous; sepals free. Pods to 12.5 cm long, 8–13 (–20) mm wide, thinly coriaceous; marginal nerve prominent. Seeds ±longitudinal, oblong to orbicular, flat, usually 6–7 mm long, slightly shiny, dark brown; funicle thick, scarcely arillate.

Phenology

Usually summer flowering.

Habitat

Grows in open Eucalyptus forest on ridges or along creeks, or with A. harpophylla.

Specimens

Qld: Barrabas Scrub, B.Hyland 6054 (BRI, NSW); 14.5 km SW of Biloela, M.Lazarides 6963 (BRI, NSW); Rosewood, 3 Dec. 1976, M.Olsen & B.Lebler (BRI, NSW).

Notes

Sometimes superficially resembling A. crombiei. The pods and seeds described by G.Bentham, Fl. Austral. 2: 362 (1864) under A. macradenia are those of A. fasciculifera, fide F.J.H. von Mueller, S. Sci. Rec. 2(7): 150 (1882).

Acacia fasciculifera normally grows to c. 10 m high, but it can reach 20 m or more with the trunk reaching 0.6 m diam. It is sometimes logged for timber. Its flowers are sweetly perfumed but the smell is different from the normal wattle scent, fide B.A.Lebler, Wildfl. SE Queensland 2: 46 (1981).

Some specimens from the Port Curtis and North Kennedy Districts (e.g. B.Hyland 6054, BRI, NSW; E.Zillman 9, BRI) have consistently short phyllodes (4–8 cm long), broad pods (2 cm wide) and large seeds (15 × 9 mm). Elsewhere the phyllodes all or mostly exceed 7 cm long, the pods are narrower and the seeds are smaller. According to L.Pedley, Austrobaileya 1: 263 (1980), the pods are sometimes only 8 mm wide with seeds 5 × 4 mm.

FOA Reference

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

Author

B.R.Maslin

Minor edits by J.Rogers