Acacia barrettiorum Lewington & Maslin
WATTLE
Acacias of Australia
Common Name
Barrett’s Wattle
Family
Fabaceae
Distribution
Occurs in Kimberley region, W.A., where it is restricted to two, small, disjunct populations in the Prince Regent Nature Reserve.
Description
Glabrous shrub 1–2.5 m high. Branchlets bearing scars where phyllodes have fallen. Stipules mostly caducous, inconspicuous, 0.2–0.3 mm long. Phyllodes crowded, patent, triangular to oblong-triangular with broad, sessile, truncate base, 1.5–3 mm long, 1–3 mm wide, terminated by conspicuous, upwardly inflected, setose mucro 0.5–2 mm long; longitudinal nerves indistinct, 3–7 per face; gland absent or inconspicuous. Inflorescences simple, 1 per axil; peduncles 4–7 mm long, resinous, ebracteate at base; heads globular, 30–40-flowered, light golden; bracteoles c. 2 mm long, acuminate and slightly exserted in buds. Flowers 5-merous; sepals ±free, narrowly linear. Pods narrowly linear, 3–6 cm long, 2–3 mm wide, firmly chartaceous to thinly coriaceous, resinous, dark red-brown, finely longitudinally nerved. Seeds longitudinal, oblong, 3–4 mm long, ±shiny, black; aril terminal and white.
Habitat
Grows in shallow sand over sandstone, often near creeks in fire-protected areas, in low shrubland often with Triodia.
Specimens
W.A.: Kimberley Region [precise localities withheld for conservation reasons], R.L.Barrett & M.D.Barrett RLB 3892 (DNA, NSW, NT, PERTH) and R.L.Barrett & M.D.Barrett RLB 3920 (K, MEL, PERTH).
Notes
A distinctive species with no obvious close relatives; possibly distantly related to members of the ‘A. deltoidea’ group which differ most obviously in differently shaped, pungent phyllodes, see M.A.Lewington and B.R.Maslin, Nuytsia 19(1): 66–67 (2009) for discussion. Superficially similar to A. perpusilla in having globular heads and very small plurinerved phyllodes terminated by a bristle-like mucro; see B.R.Maslin, M.D.Barrett & R.L.Barrett, Nuytsia 23: 575 (2013) for notes.
FOA Reference
Flora of Australia Project
Author
B.R.Maslin
J.Reid
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