Family

Fabaceae

Distribution

These plants are most common in the general vicinity of Sandstone, but it also occurs NW of Meekatharra and E of Wiluna. See also below regarding possible Pilbara occurrences.

Description

Multi-stemmed shrubs or trees 3–6 m tall. Branchlet resin-ribs absent or vestigial, resin (when present) translucent). Phyllodes narrowly elliptic or sometimes +/- linear, mostly 25–60 mm long and 2–4 mm wide with l: w = 7–25, shallowly incurved, normally green, sometimes sub-glaucous. Pods orange to light brown, obscurely nerved to nerveless, glabrous, margins rimmed or sometimes bevel-edged on one margin.

Specimens

W.A.: 19.5 km E of Wiluna on road to Gunbarrel Highway, B.R. Maslin 9032 (PERTH); 92 km NW of Meekatharra on road to Gascoyne Junction, B.R. Maslin 9071 (PERTH); 69 km S of Mt Magnet – Leinster Road on Sandstone – Paynes Find Road, B.R. Maslin 9923 (PERTH).

Notes

These plants have the general facies of A. aptaneura, differing most obviously in their relatively short & broad phyllodes that are commonly narrowly elliptic (phyllodes linear in A. aptaneura). Phyllodes superficially very similar to some morphotypes of A. aneura but the rimmed pods distinguish it from that species. The taxonomic status of these short/broad variants is uncertain; they may possibly represent hybrids involving either A. aptaneura or A. macraneura, but the second parent is unknown.

This entity is noted by B.R.Maslin & J.E.Reid, Nuytsia 22: 179 (2012) under A. aptaneura, vouchered by B.R. Maslin & J.E. Reid BRM 9730

Some of the plants from woodland communities in the West Angelas area of the Pilbara region (about 350 km N of Sandstone) superficially resemble those from Sandstone; however, it is not known if they represent the same biological entity. This woodland variant of A. aptaneura is discussed by B.R.Maslin & J.E.Reid, Nuytsia 22: 179–180 (2012) and is illustrated in Figure 16A of that work; however, it should be noted that there are plants of typical A. aptaneura that occur also in these woodland communities All Pilbara plants that are provisionally referred here to Acacia aptaneura (short/broad phyllode variant) are sterile. Further study, including genetic information, is needed to properly assess the status of both the Sandstone/Wiluna and Pilbara populations.

FOA Reference

Flora of Australia Project

Author

B.R.Maslin