Acacia ulicifolia (Salisb.) Court

Fabaceae

Court, A.B. (1957) The Victorian Naturalist 73: 173.

Juniper Wattle; Prickly Moses; Wattle, Juniper

Flowers and fruits as a shrub about 1-4 m tall.

Leaves phyllodineous. Leaf blades +/- needle-like, about 10-12 x 1.5 mm with a sharp pungent point at the apex. Midrib raised on both surfaces. Stipules small, brown, thorn-like, about 1-1.5 mm long.

Flowers sessile, packed in spherical heads on peduncles about 5-15 mm long. Calyx +/- translucent, clothed in white hairs. Corolla +/- translucent, yellow-green towards the apex. Anther filaments glabrous, white. Ovary green.

Pods linear, about 4-5 x 0.5 cm. Funicle orange-brown, straight, about 3 mm long.

Cotyledons about 4-5 x 2 mm. First leaf pinnate, second leaf bipinnate, leaflets apiculate. At the tenth leaf stage: leaves phyllodineous, terete or linear, about 6-8 x 1 mm, apex subulate, base sessile. Midrib just visible with a lens. Stipules linear, about 1 mm long. Seed germination time 19 to 31 days.

Endemic to Australia, occurs in NEQ, CEQ and southwards as far as Tasmania. Altitudinal range in NEQ from 900-1100 m. In NEQ usually grows in open forest and wet sclerophyll forest but occasionally found on rain forest margins.

This species has exhibited some anti-tumour activity.