Acacia cincinnata F.Muell.

Fabaceae

Mueller, F.J.H. von (1879) Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae 11: 35. Type: Ad sinum oceanicum Rockinghams Bay et in insula Goulds Island; Dallachy.

Circle Fruit Salwood; Daintree Wattle; Wattle; Wattle, Daintree

Usually encountered as a small tree but recorded to 60 cm dbh. Inner blaze very fibrous and stringy.

Leaves phyllodineous. Leaf blades about 11-16 x 16-3 cm. A gland usually visible on the upper side of the leaf blade-petiole junction. Terminal buds and young leaves clothed in silky, prostrate, golden hairs which turn silver with age. Veins longitudinal, +/- parallel, anastomosing, three veins usually more prominent than the rest, running into each other near the base.

Spikes cream or very pale yellow, about 3.5 cm long, interrupted, on peduncles about 0.5 cm long. Spikes in pairs in the upper axils, peduncle and axis clothed in golden hairs. Calyx densely pubescent, about 0.6 mm long. Corolla about 1.4-1.8 mm long, glabrous, deeply lobed. Stamens about 2.5 mm long. Ovary densely hairy, but glabrous when rudimentary.

Pod linear, tightly coiled about five times to form a tight spiral. Seeds shiny black, longitudinal, about 3.6 x 2 mm. Funicle orange, rather fine, encircling the seed. The remains of the tightly coiled spiral seed pods normally present beneath mature trees.

Cotyledons oblong, ovate or obovate, about 5 mm long. First leaf pinnate, second leaf bipinnate. By the third or fourth leaf stage: leaves bipinnate, petiole broadly flattened. At the tenth leaf stage: leaves phyllodineous, narrowly elliptic, slightly unequal-sided at the base, glabrous or nearly so when mature, usually 3 main veins run from base to apex; stipules very small, visible only with a lens. Seed germination time 10 to 313 days.

Endemic to Queensland, occurs in NEQ, CEQ and south-eastern Queensland. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 800 m. Grows on the edge of rain forest and in rain forest regrowth but also found in open forest, particularly in swampy areas.