Family

Fabaceae

Distribution

Occurs predominantly in inland parts of the Pilbara, W.A. between the Gascoyne and De Grey Rivers, extending to the coast and islands about Dampier. Cultivated in north-western W.A.

Description

Tree, rarely a shrub, 3–10 m high, with gracefully pendulous branchlets and foliage. Phyllodes linear, shallowly to strongly recurved or sometimes shallowly serpentinous, (13–) 15–23 (–30) cm long, 1–4 mm wide, green, grey-green or silvery green. Peduncles 3–8 (–10) mm long. Pods 6–13 mm wide, obviously curved, twisted and/or openly coiled (sometimes into a circle) before dehiscence, often irregularly so.

Habitat

Grows along inland water-courses in fringing woodland and on stable coastal dunes.

Specimens

W.A.: 41.5 km W of Gascoyne Junction on the road to Carnarvon, B.R.Maslin 5002 (PERTH); West Lewis Is., Dampier Archipelago, R.D.Royce 7422 (PERTH).

Notes

Subspecies pendens is grown for ornamental purposes in NW Western Australia. Indigenous people of the west Pilbara used A. coriacea for making spears and shields. Ash produced from the wood was used with native tobacco (Nicotiana species) as a chewing quid.

FOA Reference

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

Author

Revised by B.R.Maslin & J.Reid

R.S.Cowan, B.R.Maslin