Family

Fabaceae

Distribution

Confined to a few populations near Kalannie in the north-central wheatbelt region of south-western W.A.

Description

Bushy shrubs 2–3 m tall, sometimes clonal due to root suckering. Branchlets bronze or dull reddish on upper (exposed) surface, commonly greenish below. Phyllodes variable in shape and size (even on a single plant), most tending towards narrowly oblanceolate, obtuse to (when narrow) acuminate, 7–12 (–14) cm long, (4–) 5–17 (–22) mm wide, dull green or sub-glaucous; glands normally 2, the lowermost 15–40 mm above pulvinus. Raceme axes and peduncles glabrous to minutely appressed-hairy; heads c. 30-flowered (few heads seen); peduncles 4–7 mm long. Flowers 5 merous; calyx gamosepalous. Pods linear to sub-moniliform, 6–18 cm long, 4–7 mm wide. Seeds 4–6 long; funicle 3/4 encircling the seed.

Habitat

Grows in light brown or yellow-brown sandy loam, with some gravel, on the lower slopes of rises high in the landscape.

Specimens

W.A.: c. 40 km due NE of Kalannie, B.R.Maslin 7703 (AD, CANB, PERTH).

Notes

This entity is a member of the ‘Acacia microbotrya group’. Judging from morphological criteria it is suspected that it may be a hybrid between A. daphnifolia and Acacia sp. Kalannie (B.R.Maslin 7706) which is related to A. jennerae; both presumed parents occur within the area where Acacia sp. Kalannie (B.R.Maslin 7571) is found. Characters suggesting this hybridity include the very wide range of variation in phyllode width and the peduncles and raceme axes that vary from glabrous to appressed-hairy.

This variant was not included in the treatment of A. brumalis by B.R.Maslin, Fl. Australia 11A: 287 (2001), but was discussed under this species by B.R.Maslin, WATTLE Acacias of Australia CD-ROM (2001).

FOA Reference

Flora of Australia Project

Author

B.R.Maslin