Acacia meiantha Tindale & Herscovitch
Acacia meiantha Tindale & Herscovitch
Fabaceae
Only recorded from N.S.W. in the Mullions Ra., N of Orange, and near Clarence, Blue Mtns.
Erect or straggling shrub, 1–2.4 m high. Bark smooth. Branchlets angled apically, clothed with short stiff hairs to 0.2 mm long, with prevalent lenticels; phyllode bases persistent. Bipinnate leaves sometimes present. Phyllodes crowded, erect or retrorse, linear, subterete to ±flattened, (1–) 2–5 (–6.5) cm long, 0.4–1.2 mm wide, with curved mucro (0.2–0.5 mm long), glabrous or almost so; midrib obscure; gland not prominent, 0.5–7 mm above the slightly hairy pulvinus. Inflorescences racemose; raceme axes (0.3–) 1.5–3 (–7) cm long, puberulous to glabrous; peduncles 2–4.5 mm long, puberulous to glabrous; heads globular, 4–8-flowered, yellow to dark yellow. Flowers 5-merous; calyx membranous, dissected to 1/4–2/5, with broadly deltate lobes and tube slightly hairy. Legumes narrowly oblong, scarcely constricted between seeds, flat, to 8.5 cm long, 4–7 mm wide, firmly chartaceous, light brown, smooth. Seeds longitudinal, black; areole narrowly elliptic-oblong.
Flowers July.–Oct.
Grows mainly in eucalypt woodland, not on rocky outcrops.
N.S.W.: Mullions Ra., R.G.Coveny 10247 (AD, B, BM, BRI, CANB, GH, K, L, MO, NSW, NY, PERTH, UC, UNSW, US, Z); Long Pt Rd, 27 Dec. 1959, W.E.Giles (NSW); Bells Line of Rd, Clarence, P.Hind 6076 et al. (AD, BRI, CANB, K, MEL, MO, NSW, PERTH, UC, US, Z); loc. id., P.G.Kodela 191 & P.D.Hind (CANB, HO, NSW, PERTH, UNSW).
This species appears to rarely set seed, but reproduces by underground runners. It is closely allied to A. boormanii which is distinguished most readily by its habit (bushy shrub to 5 m high), clearly flattened, normally wider phyllodes and glabrous branchlets.
Data derived from Flora of Australia Volumes 11A (2001), 11B (2001) and 12 (1998), products of ABRS, ©Commonwealth of Australia
Minor edits by B.R.Maslin
M.D.Tindale, P.G.Kodela
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