Common Name

Billy Blue

Family

Fabaceae

Distribution

Occurs in near-coastal areas S of Carnarvon from Edaggee S to Woodleigh Stns, also inland near Gascoyne Junction.

Description

Branchlets puberulous, sometimes glabrous. Phyllodes narrowly elliptic to narrowly oblong-elliptic, infrequently narrowly oblong-lanceolate, 3–6 cm long, 6–17 mm wide, l:w = 2–6, acute with straight or incurved mucro, glaucous, new shoots green. Raceme axes normally puberulous; heads 20–25-flowered.

Habitat

Grows in sand, sandy loam and stony, sometimes calcareous soil in open scrub, sometimes associated with chenopods or hummock grassland.

Specimens

W.A.: 8.5 km from beach on track W from North West Coastal Hwy, 46 km N of Overlander Roadhouse, A.R.Chapman 578 (BRI, NSW, PERTH); loc. id., A.R.Chapman 579 (MEL, PERTH); Pells Ra., Bidgemia Stn, A.Holm (PERTH); c. 71.5 km S of Carnarvon, North West Coastal Hwy, Jan. 1973, E.Parkin s.n. (PERTH).

Notes

Resembles A. tysonii which differs especially in its shortly velvety phyllodes and ±narrower pods. Hybridises with A. sclerosperma subsp. sclerosperma around the 26° parallel on the North West Coastal Hwy, where numerous intermediates occur.

FOA Reference

Data derived from Flora of Australia Volumes 11A (2001), 11B (2001) and 12 (1998), products of ABRS, ©Commonwealth of Australia

Author

A.R.Chapman, B.R.Maslin