Acacia chinchillensis Tindale
WATTLE
Acacias of Australia
Family
Fabaceae
Distribution
Occurs in south-eastern Qld N of Chinchilla and near Tara.
Description
Multistemmed, glaucous shrub 0.3–2 m high. Bark smooth, grey-brown, greenish brown or yellow-brown. Branchlets terete, pilose with soft white hairs; ridges inconspicuous. Young foliage-tips greenish white, pilose. Leaves herbaceous or subcoriaceous, ±silvery glaucous; petiole 0.1–0.6 cm long, terete, shortly pilose, mostly with a raised glabrous or pilose orbicular gland c. 0.1–0.3 mm diam. at base of or just below lowest pair of pinnae; rachis (0.2–) 0.5–1.5 (–2.3) cm long, shortly pilose, occasionally with a similar gland at base of apical pair of pinnae; interjugary glands absent; pinnae 2–4 (–5) pairs, (0.5–) 0.8–1.5 (-2) cm long; pinnules 5–11 pairs, narrowly oblanceolate or oblanceolate, sometimes cultrate, 2–7 mm long, 0.5–1 mm wide, with often slightly recurved margins, glabrous or very sparsely pilose towards apex and on margins, with midnerve obscure, almost central, apically acute, bluntly apiculate or broadly rounded. Inflorescences in axillary racemes or mainly terminal false-panicles. Peduncles 2.5–5 mm long. Heads globular, 11–22-flowered, golden or yellow. Pods often curved, 4–10 cm long, 4–7 mm wide, thinly coriaceous, brownish black, ±blue-pruinose, villous or pilose.
Phenology
Flowers July–Sept.
Habitat
Grows in ironbark eucalypt (Eucalyptus melanophloia etc.)–Callitris columellaris –Casuarina woodland, in sandy or gravelly soils.
Specimens
Qld: Darling Downs District: Auburn–Chinchilla road, 40.7 km N of Chinchilla, R.Coveny 6818 & P.Hind (A, BRI, CANB, K, MEL, NSW, PERTH, UC, US); c. 20 km NE of Tara, N.Hall H77/123 (FRI, NSW, PERTH).
Notes
Closely allied to Acacia polybotrya but differing in fewer flowers per head, pinnae smaller and narrower (5–10 mm wide), pinnules smaller, non-sulcate, with midnerve obscure and basal lateral nerves absent, calyces shorter being 1/3 length of corollas instead of 1/2, and lobes of calyces triangular, dissected to 1/5 of length of tube. Acacia chinchillensis is restricted to Qld where it has a more northerly distribution than A. polybotrya and occurs in drier country. The latter species extends from the Darling Downs District, Qld, to North Western Plains, N.S.W. (especially Pilliga Scrub) and North and Central Western Slopes. Also related to another Qld endemic, A. argentina.
FOA Reference
Data derived from Flora of Australia Volumes 11A (2001), 11B (2001) and 12 (1998), products of ABRS, ©Commonwealth of Australia
Author
M.D.Tindale, P.G.Kodela
Minor edits by B.R.Maslin & J.Reid
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