Acacia pravissima F.Muell.
WATTLE
Acacias of Australia
Common Name
Oven(s) Wattle, Wedge-leaf Wattle, Tumut Wattle
Family
Fabaceae
Distribution
Occurs in south-eastern Australia in the higher parts of the Great Divide from near Tumut, N.S.W. and Cotter R., A.C.T., to the Strathbogie Ra. and Macalister R., Vic.
Description
Shrub or tree usually (0.5–) 3–8 m high; branches slender and spreading or arching gracefully. Branchlets ribbed, glabrous or hirsutellous. Phyllodes crowded, on short stem-projections, markedly inequilateral, generally obdeltate with adaxial margin conspicuously rounded with the proximal edge ±parallel to branchlet, 7–12 (–16) mm long, 5–14 mm wide, mucronate, green to grey-green, glabrous, imperfectly 2-nerved; midrib near abaxial margin and a lesser nerve above it; lateral nerves indistinct; gland prominent, 1.5–5.5 (–9.5) mm above base, sometimes similar to A. kettlewelliae. Inflorescences prolific, racemose; raceme axes longer than phyllodes, glabrous or hirsutellous; peduncles 2–5 mm long, slender, glabrous; heads globular, 5–6 mm diam. (dry), 8–12-flowered, golden. Flowers 5-merous; sepals united. Pods narrowly oblong, to c. 8 cm long, 6–9 mm wide, firmly chartaceous, glabrous. Seeds longitudinal, oblong to ovate, 3.5–5 mm long, dull, black; aril clavate.
Habitat
Usually grows near streams or in moist sheltered sites, often in open Eucalyptus forest.
Specimens
N.S.W.: near Tumut to the Yarrangobilly Caves, Feb. 1897, E.Betche s.n. (NSW). A.C.T.: between Bulls Head and Bendora Dam, Cotter R. district, R.Pullen 3859 (NSW). Vic.: near Paradise Falls, c. 13 km SSE of Whitfield, F.E.Bienvenu P22 (PERTH); Magilton Ck, 2.4 km NW of Strathbogie, H.I.Aston 658 (MEL).
Notes
At Paradise Falls, north-eastern Vic., A. pravissima hybridises with both A. kettlewelliae and the Mt Typo variant of A. boormanii. These hybrids are recognised by the following characters: phyllodes slightly inequilateral, narrowly elliptic, acute to subacute, 17–30 mm long, 4–10 mm wide, the second longitudinal nerve (when developed) obscure and normally intersecting the gland. They resemble A. semibinervia (which is possibly a garden hybrid involving A. pravissima and A. vestita) or sometimes A. buxifolia subsp. buxifolia.
Sometimes superficially resembling A. cultriformis which has commonly longer, grey-green to glaucous phyllodes and globular to shortly cylindrical, 13–40-flowered heads.
The dwarf variant from Splitters Ck, Vic., noted under A. pravissima by B.R.Maslin, Fl. Australia 11A: 331 (2001) is now described as A. nanopravissima. Other dwarf taxa, A. infecunda and A. tabula also occur at Splitters Ck.
A widely cultivated ornamental species with prolific racemes at ends of branchlets. A prostrate registered cultivar, ‘Golden Carpet’ and a dwarf variant (c. 0.5 m high) cultivar, ‘Little Nugget’, are recognized for this species, fide M.Hitchcock, Austral. Pl. 22: 323, 325 (2004), for description..
FOA Reference
Data derived from Flora of Australia Volumes 11A (2001), 11B (2001) and 12 (1998), products of ABRS, ©Commonwealth of Australia
Author
Revised by B.R.Maslin
B.R.Maslin
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