Common Name

Chippendale's Wattle

Family

Fabaceae

Distribution

Occurs from the Sir Frederick Ra., W.A., through central N.T. to the Cloncurry–Mt Isa area, Qld.

Description

Shrub usually to 0.5 m high, spreading. Branchlets velvety-tomentose with ±erect spreading white hairs. Stipules 0.4–1 mm long. Phyllodes in whorls of 8–11, ascending, slightly flattened, ±straight or slightly recurved at apex, 2.5–8 mm long, shortly mucronate, pilose, with an obscure adaxial nerve. Peduncles 4–20 mm long, tomentose to pilose. Heads (10–) 20–25-flowered. Flowers 5-merous; calyx 0.6–1 mm long, sparsely hairy; calyx lobes triangular, obtuse, acute or acuminate; corolla lobes striate, hairy towards apex. Pods sessile, linear, sometimes contracted between seeds, 15–70 mm long, 5–7 mm wide, glabrous, viscid; margins somewhat thickened. Seeds longitudinal or slightly oblique, 3.5–4 mm long; pleurogram open.

Habitat

Grows in skeletal rocky soils and in deep sand, often of lateritic origin.

Specimens

W.A.: Sir Frederick Ra., D.E.Symon 2234 (AD, CANB, K). N.T.: 16 km S of Elliott, N.Byrnes 1171 (BRI, DNA); 27 km W of Rockhampton Downs Stn turn off, G.M.Chippendale 1532 (BRI, CANB, DNA, PERTH); c. 5 km W of Barrys Caves, R.C.Carolin 7330 (NSW). Qld: 27 km from Mt Isa on Camooweal road, C.H.Gittins 753 (BRI).

Notes

Sterile specimens of A. chippendalei often cannot be distinguished with certainty from A. adoxa, but the arrangement of the seeds, and the ribbing and lobing of the calyx differentiate the two. Acacia chippendalei has been confused with A. lycopodiifolia but it lacks the prominent seta of the phyllode and the structure of the calyx is different. Specimens from the Macdonnell and Sir Frederick Ranges have usually longer and stouter phyllodes, and somewhat larger flowers with a more deeply lobed calyx. Sometimes grows to 3 m tall.

FOA Reference

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

Author

A.S.George

Minor edits by J.Reid