Family

Fabaceae

Distribution

Restricted to the Wongan Hills, W.A., where it is relatively common.

Description

Craggy intricate shrub 0.5–1.3 m high. Branches minutely puberulous, divided into short, divaricate, coarsely pungent branchlets. Phyllodes elliptic to widely elliptic, (6–) 9–15 mm long, 4–12 mm wide, ±undulate and patent, acute, mucronate, somewhat pungent, green to subglaucous, minutely puberulous, 1-nerved; lateral nerves obscure. Inflorescences racemose in upper axils, 1 or 2 per axil, sometimes paniculate due to phyllode suppression; raceme axes 5–20 mm long, sparsely minutely puberulous; peduncles twinned, c. 10 mm long, red-brown, sparsely minutely puberulous; heads globular, 30–40-flowered, light golden. Flowers 5‑merous; sepals free, 2/3 length of petals, linear-spathulate. Pods strongly arcuate to 11/2-coiled, to 4 cm long (expanded length), c. 4 mm wide, thinly crustaceous, red-brown, glabrous. Seeds longitudinal, oblong-elliptic, 3–4 mm long, turgid, dull, brown, arillate.

Habitat

Grows on hills in lateritic soil in mallee.

Specimens

W.A.: type locality, B.R.Maslin 3382 (AD, BRI, PERTH).

Notes

Sympatric with, and often confused with A. semicircinalis; see B.R.Maslin, Nuytsia 4: 30 (1982), for further details. Possibly allied to A. muriculata.

FOA Reference

Data derived from Flora of Australia Volumes 11A (2001), 11B (2001) and 12 (1998), products of ABRS, ©Commonwealth of Australia

Author

B.R.Maslin

Minor edits by J.Reid & J.Rogers