Acacia constablei Tindale
WATTLE
Acacias of Australia
Family
Fabaceae
Distribution
Restricted to the Narrabarba area, East Boyd and Nadgee State Forests, South Coast, N.S.W.
Description
Straggling or erect shrub 1.3–3 (–5) m high. Bark smooth, grey, often mottled. Branchlets dark brown, grey-puberulous, with knobbly ridges c. 0.5 mm high. Young foliage-tips sulphur-yellow, tomentose. Leaves thick, coriaceous, dark green; petiole above pulvinus 0.2–1 cm long, vertically flattened, with 1 grey-puberulous gland at base of or below lowest pair of pinnae; rachis 1.7–5 (–8.5) cm long, with 1 orbicular raised puberulous jugary gland at all or most pairs of pinnae; interjugary glands rare; pinnae 6–14 (–19) pairs, 0.8–3 cm long; pinnules 9–30 pairs, closely spaced, ±narrowly oblong, 1–2.5 (–4) mm long, 0.5–0.8 mm wide, subglabrous or white- or yellow-puberulous, broadly rounded apically. Inflorescences in axillary racemes or sometimes in terminal false-panicles; peduncles 2–5 (–10) mm long, appressed-hairy. Heads 30–45-flowered, pale yellow or cream-coloured. Pods straight to slightly curved, 3–7 (–11.5) cm long, 7–10 mm wide, coriaceous, black or dark brown, grey-puberulous, glabrescent.
Phenology
Flowers June–Aug.; fruits Nov.
Habitat
Forming almost impenetrable whipstick scrubs on rocky, knife-edge ridges of rhyolite, granite and aplite, mostly in poor soils, sometimes in rich black loam.
Specimens
N.S.W.: East Boyd State Forest, D.E.Albrecht 2669 (MEL, NSW); c. 3 miles [4.8 km] SE of Narrabarba, E.F.Constable 5444 (A, AD, BRI, CANB, NSW, PERTH, UC, Z); Narrabarba Hill, 15 miles [24 km] N of Victorian border, 11 Oct. 1954, E.F.Constable s.n. (CANB, K, MEL, NSW, US).
Notes
Acacia constablei is allied to A. nanodealbata, but differs in the whipstick-like habit, knobbly ridges on the branchlets, more fleshy pinnules, more puberulous, black or dark brown pods and less pouch-like glands on the rachises. Acacia constablei is also similar to A. mearnsii which has several interjugary glands, more pairs of pinnae and pinnules, and a longer petiole.
The indumentum of A. constablei is often pale yellowish to grey, the hairs on branchlets and leaf rachis are often in small tufts on the knobbly ridges.
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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