Acacia infecunda Molyneux & Forrester
Acacia infecunda Molyneux & Forrester
Famine Wattle
Fabaceae
Known only from type locality, Splitters Ck, S of Wulgulmerang in East Gippsland, Vic. Currently known by a single small population on the Wombargo Ra. in the upper catchment of Little R., a tributary of the Snowy R. The population comprises small fragmented stands growing in close proximity.
Erect shrub 0.3–0.6 (–1.2) m high, readily suckering. Branchlets not pruinose, glabrous. Phyllodes linear, straight, flat, 1.2–4.1 cm long, 0.8–2.2 mm wide, obliquely and excentrically mucronate, thin, grey-green, glabrous; midrib not prominent, lateral nerves absent; gland not prominent, 4–8 (–11.5) mm above pulvinus. Inflorescences (5–) 8–10-headed racemes; raceme axes (0.3–) 1–3 (–4) cm long; peduncles 1.5–4 mm long, glabrous; heads globular, 3–5 mm diam. (dry), 5–9-flowered, golden. Flowers 5-merous; sepals united. Pods and seeds not seen.
Flowers late Aug.–early Oct.
Grows in dry open forest on high rocky ground in shallow soils derived from sediments.
Vic.: Splitters Ck crossing, Limestone Ck Rd, 30 Apr. 1986, W.M.Molyneux & S.G.Forrester (MEL).
Most closely related to A. boormanii which differs in its taller stature, generally longer phyllodes and larger heads; see W.M.Molyneux & S.G. Forrester (Muelleria 26(1): 54, Table 1 (2008) for a detailed comparison of these two species. According to W.M.Molyneux & S.G. Forrester (Muelleria 26(1): 56 (2008) the nearest stands of A. boormanii to those of A. infecunda are on the Snowy R. some 20 km to the E where the latter occur, and at a much lower elevation.
A slow growing dwarf species that spreads by suckering and was treated as a dwarf variant of A. boormanii by B.R.Maslin in Fl. Australia 11A: 334 (2001). Acacia nanopravissima and A. tabula occur in the same area at Splitters Ck and were treated as dwarf variants of A. pravissima and A. buxifolia subsp. buxifolia in Fl. Australia 11A: 331 & 341 (2001) respectively.
Flora of Australia Project
B.R.Maslin
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