Acacia carneorum Maiden
WATTLE
Acacias of Australia
Common Name
Needle Wattle, Dead Finish, Purple-wood Wattle
Family
Fabaceae
Distribution
Scattered from SW of Lake Frome and near Peterborough, S.A., to near Tibooburra and Menindee Lakes, N.S.W.
Description
Straggly spreading gregarious shrub or tree to 5 m high; habit similar to some Hakea spp. (e.g. H. leucoptera). Branchlet apices densely tomentulose-puberulous. Phyllodes sessile, patent to inclined, quadrangular in section with a yellow or light brown nerve at apex of each angle, (2–) 3–9 cm long, 1–2 (–2.5) mm wide, pungent, thick, rigid; indumentum appressed-puberulous, becoming sparse or absent with age. Inflorescences simple, normally 1 per axil; peduncles 8–30 mm long, appressed-puberulous; heads globular, 35–60-flowered, bright golden. Flowers 5-merous; sepals united. Pods rarely produced, narrowly oblong, 2–5 cm long, 8–12 mm wide, thickly coriaceous to woody, dehiscing from apex. Seeds longitudinal, elliptic, c. 6 mm long, aril large and yellowish.
Phenology
Flowering is sporadic and probably related to rainfall; apparently few pods are produced.
Habitat
Grows on sand ridges or sandy flats in mulga communities or with Callitris glaucophylla, or in alluvium along watercourses in chenopod low shrubland.
Specimens
S.A.: Minburra Stn, 30 Apr. 1965, S.A. Pastoral Board (AD); Bimbowri Stn, D.J.E.Whibley 6133 (AD, MO). N.S.W.: 8 km NW of Hewart Downs HS, J.Pickard 1750 (NSW); 6 km W of Tandou HS, J.Pickard 2347 (K, NSW).
Notes
Biochemically related to A. crombiei and A. peuce, see A. crombiei for note. Perhaps distantly related to A. atrox.
Following N.Hall & L.A.S.Johnson, The Names of Acacias of New South Wales 34 (1993), the epithet ‘carneorum’ is adopted here instead of ‘carnei’.
An excellent sand binder due to its gregarious, suckering habit.
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 B.R.Maslin & J.Reid
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