Acacia richardsii Maslin
WATTLE
Acacias of Australia
Family
Fabaceae
Distribution
Restricted to a small area from near Kununurra in W.A. to the Keep R. Natl Park in N.T.
Description
Shrub 3–4 m high, bushy, rounded to ±obconic, glabrous. Branchlets resin-ribbed, angled towards apices. Phyllodes slightly asymmetric, narrowly elliptic to oblong-elliptic or ±oblanceolate, 1.7–4 cm long, 4.5–8.5 mm wide, obtuse, thin, subglaucous, variably resinous with resin drying meally white over nerves, mostly 2-nerved per face, with minor nerves openly longitudinally anastomosing; glands 2–5, not prominent. Inflorescences simple, 1 or 2 per axil; peduncles 5–10 (–15) mm long; spikes 2–3 cm long, 2–4 mm wide, golden. Flowers 5‑merous; sepals free, linear-spathulate. Pods narrowly oblong to linear, narrowed at base, to 8 cm long, (4–) 5–6 mm wide, woody, red-brown, obliquely longitudinally nerved, resinous, dehiscing elastically from apex; margins narrowly winged and rendering pod quadrangular in section especially when young with wing 2–3 mm wide. Seeds oblique, oblong, c. 4.5 mm long, somewhat shiny, greyish brown; funicle/aril narrowly turbinate.
Habitat
It is apparently restricted to rocky sandstone areas.
Specimens
W.A.: headwaters of Packsaddle Ck, Northern Carr Boyd Ra., T.G.Hartley 14389 & 14403 (CANB, PERTH); Hidden Valley, Kununurra, B.R.Maslin 5154 (PERTH). N.T.: Keep R. Natl Park, A.S.Mitchell 314 (DNA).
Notes
Related to A. tenuispica and its allies but usually distinguished by its rather small, mostly 2-nerved, reticulately nerved phyllodes (but note Prince Regent R. variant under A. tenuispica).
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.Rogers
B.R.Maslin
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