Senegalia albizioides (Pedley) Pedley

Fabaceae

Pedley, L. (1986) Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 92 : 250.

Climbing Wattle; Wattle, Climbing

Vine stem diameters to 12 cm recorded. Bark finely flaky. Pale fibrous stripes usually visible in the blaze.

Twigs sparsely clothed in short, broad-based, recurved spines. Leaflet blades about 6-15 x 1-5 mm, very unequal-sided, petioles absent or very short. Usually more than 200 leaflets per compound leaf. Compound leaf secondary axes grooved on the upper surface and ending in a subulate (?) point. Compound leaf petiole with a domed gland on the upper surface about 8 mm up from its junction with the twig.

Flower buds red, flowers cream to yellow. Flowers borne in spherical heads, each head on a peduncle about 15-30 mm long. Calyx tube about 1.5-2.5 mm long, lobes less than 0.5 mm long. Corolla about 3 mm long, the lobes less than 0.5 to 1 mm long. Ovary stalked, the stalk (stipe) about 1 mm long, ovary about 1 mm long. Ovules about six to eight.

Fruits flattened, about 4.5-7 x 1.5-2 cm. Seeds about 5-10 per fruit. Each seed about 10-11 x 6-7 mm. Funicle thin, thread-like, folded twice beneath the base of the seed. Embryo almost as large as the seed, about 10 x 4.5 mm. Cotyledons rather thick and fleshy. Radicle much shorter and narrower than the cotyledons. Radicle attached to each cotyledon about 2.5 mm from the base.

Cotyledons +/- oblong, about 7-8 x 2-3 mm. First leaf bipinnate with two secondary axes on each side of the main compound leaf axis. Leaflets oblong. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf bipinnate, with six to eight secondary axes each of which bears about 18-40 leaflets. Leaflets small, oblong, about 9 x 2.5 mm, apex shortly acuminate, base very asymmetrical and truncate. Midrib closer to one margin, not in the middle of the leaflet. Leaflets almost sessile. Compound leaf petiole and the main compound leaf rhachis armed with stiff spines on the lower surface. Stipules caducous, about 4 mm long. Seed germination time 6 to 12 days.

Occurs in WA, CYP and NEQ. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 550 m. Grows in monsoon forest, lowland and upland rain forest.

Acacia albizioides Pedley, Austrobaileya 1: 311(1979), Type: McIlwraith Range, near Pandanus Creek, Nov 1975, Niclolson AFO 44871; holo: BRI; iso: K.