Acacia phasmoides J.H.Willis
WATTLE
Acacias of Australia
Common Name
Phantom Wattle
Family
Fabaceae
Distribution
An uncommon, localised species occurring on Pine Mtn, Vic., and c. 35 km away in the Dora Dora State Forest, N.S.W.
Description
Open shrub 1–4 m high; stems silvery grey; branches slender. Branchlets ±sparsely appressed-puberulous with short, straight, silvery hairs. Phyllodes distant, narrowly linear, slender, incurved, some ±tortuous, flat or (especially near base) ±quadrangular, 5–12.5 cm long, 1–2 mm wide, often ±uncinate with a coarsely pungent to innocuous mucro, glabrous to subglabrous, asperulous on margins and midrib; midrib narrow but raised. Inflorescences simple, 2 per axil; heads obloid, sessile, 8–12-flowered, light golden. Flowers 4-merous; sepals 2/3-united. Pods submoniliform, curved to sigmoid, to 9 cm long, 2.5–4.5 mm wide, thinly coriaceous, longitudinally nerved, densely appressed white-puberulous when young, subglabrous at maturity. Seeds longitudinal, 3–4 mm long, subshiny, dark brown; aril terminal.
Habitat
At Pine Mtn it grows among granite rocks in sheltered gullies.
Specimens
N.S.W.: Dora Dora State Forest, 23 Sept. 1977, M.Butz (NSW). Vic.: Pine Mtn, 8 Dec. 1974, J.H.Willis (PERTH).
Notes
This species is an insubstantial shrub with an open, wraith-like appearance. Close relatives for this species are uncertain, although M.D.Tindale, Telopea 1: 371 (1978), suggested affinities with A. genistifolia. It is superficially similar to A. microneura from W.A., which is readily distinguished by its plurinerved phyllodes.
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 B.R.Maslin
This identification key and fact sheets are available as a mobile application:
URL: https://apps.lucidcentral.org/wattle/
© Copyright 2018. All rights reserved.