Acacia falcata Willd.
WATTLE
Acacias of Australia
Common Name
Burra, Sickle-shaped Acacia, Sally, Hickory Wattle, Silver-leaved Wattle
Family
Fabaceae
Distribution
Occurs in coastal regions and on the eastern slopes of the Great Divide from near Narooma, N.S.W., N to Bundaberg and also near Herberton and Ingham (c. 900 km N of Bundaberg), Qld. A similar Qld disjunction occurs in A. falciformis and A. fimbriata.
Description
Slender shrub or tree 2–5 m high. Branchlets acutely angled at extremities, red-brown, commonly lightly pruinose, glabrous. Phyllodes falcate, broadest above middle, much-narrowed at base, 7–19 cm long, 1–4 cm wide, thin, grey-green to glaucous, sometimes green, glabrous, with excentric midrib, obscurely penninerved; gland not prominent, 0–5 mm above pulvinus; pulvinus c. 5 mm long. Inflorescences 9–22-headed racemes; raceme axes normally 2–6 cm long, sparsely to moderately ±appressed-puberulous, with hairs white or light golden and sometimes absent in fruit; peduncles 3–5 (–6) mm long, with indumentum as on raceme axes; heads globular, 12–20-flowered, creamy white. Flowers 5-merous; sepals ±free. Pods linear, to 12 cm long, 5–8 mm wide, firmly chartaceous, blackish, often lightly pruinose, glabrous. Seeds longitudinal, oblong to ovate-elliptic, 3.5–4.5 mm long, somewhat shiny, black; funicle encircling seed in a single fold, light brown; aril clavate.
Habitat
A common element of the understorey of Eucalyptus communities, often in shallow stony soil.
Specimens
Qld: near Herberton, Atherton Tablelands, R.D.Hoogland 8553 (MEL); Enoggera, near Brisbane, C.T.White 7345 (BRI). N.S.W.: 1.5 km W of Wallacia, R.Coveny 841 (NSW, PERTH); 3.4 km from Tilba Tilba to Bermagui, H.Salasoo 5100 (NSW).
Notes
A member of the ‘A. microbotrya group’ and sometimes confused with A. falciformis (especially with some forms found in north Qld), or A. penninervis which is distinguished by the gland 5–30 mm above the pulvinus and connected to the midrib by a fine oblique nerve.
Under A. falcata in the Willdenow Herbarium at Berlin Herbarium there are two sheets of A. falcata and one of A. melanoxylon. One of the A. falcata specimens originated from J.C.Wendland and is regarded as isotype. The other two sheets are without label details.
FOA Reference
Data derived from Flora of Australia Volumes 11A (2001), 11B (2001) and 12 (1998), products of ABRS, ©Commonwealth of Australia
Author
B.R.Maslin
Minor edits by B.R.Maslin & J.Rogers
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