Acacia eriopoda Maiden & Blakely
WATTLE
Acacias of Australia
Common Name
Narrow Leaf Pindan Wattle
Family
Fabaceae
Distribution
Occurs in northern W.A., between 17ºS and 23ºS, commonly in the vicinity of Broome and in the northern region of the Great Sandy Desert.
Description
Slender, erect shrub or small tree 2–7 (–8) m high, with 1 or few, straight main stems. Bark grey, finely fissured (somewhat flaking with age) on main stems, otherwise smooth. Branchlets angular, soon terete, glabrous. Phyllodes linear, flat, ±straight, (10–) 12–24 cm long, (1–) 1.5–5 (–10) mm wide, thinly coriaceous, glabrous, green or yellowish green, finely multistriate with an evident midnerve and often a subprominent longitudinal nerve either side of it, with 5–9 nonanastomosing minor nerves per mm; gland inconspicuous, basal. Spikes 2–5 cm long, densely flowered, yellow; peduncles 1–2 (–3) mm long, sparsely to densely hairy with normally wide-spreading hairs. Flowers 5-merous; calyx 0.5–0.75 mm long, dissected to 1/4–1/3, with lobes rounded, densely villous; corolla 1.25–1.5 mm long, dissected to 1/2–2/3, glabrous, with prominent midrib; ovary pubescent, sparsely so at base, villous at apex. Pods submoniliform, with segments ±fusiform, straight to shallowly curved, 6–15 (–20) cm long, 3–4 mm wide, thinly coriaceous-crustaceous, longitudinally furrowed, glabrous, light brown and often variably scurfy. Seeds longitudinal, elliptic to broadly elliptic, dorsiventrally flattened, 4–6.5 mm long, dark brown; pleurogram a U-shaped line, surrounded by two pale haloes; areole slightly raised, open, pale.
Phenology
Flowers Mar.–Sept., the main flush apparently April–June.
Habitat
Usually found in red sand, also in stony sand or sandy loams, in savannah grasslands associated with Triodia, also along creeks.
Specimens
W.A.: c. 30 km E of Willare Bridge (at intersection of Derby Rd with Great Northern Hwy), D.Davidson 11 (PERTH); 37 km from Ardjorie Ruins, on track to Dampier Downs HS, K.F.Kenneally 9164 (NSW, PERTH); Cable Beach, Broome, J.R.Maconochie 1171 (DNA, K); along Watrara Ck, Upper Rudall R. area, B.R.Maslin 2057 (NSW, PERTH); Great Northern Hwy, c. 19 miles [30.4 km] E of Fitzroy Crossing, W Kimberleys, 16 July 1974, J.H.Willis & A.C.Beauglehole (MEL, NSW).
Notes
Acacia eriopoda is a member of the ‘A. tumida group’. In the Pilbara region, W.A., A. eriopoda putatively hybridizes with both A. tumida (see A. eriopoda × tumida var. pilbarensis and A. tumida var. tumida) and A. trachycarpa (see A. eriopoda × trachycarpa and Acacia sp. Nullagine (B.R.Maslin 4955)). It also putatively hybridizes with A. monticola in a few places in the Kimberley region, e.g. Point Rd near junction with Gupungi Rd, Broome, T.Willing 7 (PERTH) (this entity has the phrase name Acacia sp. Broome (B.R.Maslin 4918). Young plants of A. eriopoda have the general aspect of A. pachyacra but the two species are not at all closely related.
FOA Reference
Data derived from Flora of Australia Volumes 11A (2001), 11B (2001) and 12 (1998), products of ABRS, ©Commonwealth of Australia
Author
Edited by B.R.Maslin
Dr M.D.Tindale and Dr P.G.Kodela with the assistance of M.Bedward, S.J.Davies, C.Herscovitch, D.A.Keith and/or D.A.Morrison
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