Family

Fabaceae

Distribution

Occurs in the Kimberley region, W.A., on the Dampier Peninsula and nearby areas, on the Buccaneer and Bonaparte Archipelagoes and S to Thangoo Stn.

Description

Shrub to 1 m high. Branchlets velvety-tomentose with normally yellow hairs that are patent and c. 0.5 mm long. Stipules 1–2 mm long. Phyllodes 12–15 per whorl, spreading and incurved to ascending, slightly flattened and grooved on upper surface, 12–20 mm long, 0.3–0.4 mm wide, shortly mucronate with mucro c. 0.2 mm long, pubescent. Peduncles 15–35 mm long. Heads 30–40-flowered. Flowers 5-merous; calyx 0.4–0.6 mm long, irregularly lobed for 1/4–3/4 of its length into triangular or oblong lobes, rarely dissected to base, glabrous except long hairs at base; corolla lobes smooth, hairy near apex. Pods sessile, broadly linear, ±flat, curved, c. 25 mm long, 8–15 mm wide, crustaceous-coriaceous, sparsely to moderately villous with white hairs, viscid, reticulately nerved but nerves sometimes rather obscure. Seeds transverse, c. 4 mm long; pleurogram open.

Habitat

Grows in deep red sand and sandy loam, often over laterite, sandstone or quartzite, in woodland and shrubland, and in seepage areas.

Specimens

W.A.: Thangoo Stn, J.S.Beard 4078 (PERTH); c. 13 km S of James Price Pt, R.C.Carolin 7503 (NSW); Gibbings Is., Buccaneer Archipelago, K.F.Kenneally 8417 (PERTH); c. 32 km WSW of Beagle Bay, M.Lazarides 6558 (CANB, PERTH); 14 km from Kimbolton Stn HS towards Derby, I.R.Telford 6411 & G.Butler (BRI, CANB, DNA, MO, NSW, PERTH).

Notes

A distinctive species, with slender branchlets and phyllodes and long yellow hairs. Closely related to A. equisitifolia and A. zatrichota. The smooth corolla suggests relationships with A. spondylophylla and A. longipedunculata but its range, peculiar indumentum, and extremely short calyx relative to the corolla set it apart from these species. Possibly hybridises with A. adoxa var. subglabra on the Dampier Penin.

FOA Reference

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

Author

Minor edits by J.Reid

A.S.George