Family

Fabaceae

Distribution

Occurs from near Mt Madden (Mt Madden is c. 40 km NNW of Ravensthorpe) E to near Mt Heywood (Mt Heywood is c. 85 km NE of Esperance), but mainly occurs in the Salmon Gums (c. 100 km N of Esperance) S to Grass Patch (c. 70 km N of Esperance) and E to the Mt Heywood area, south-western W.A.

Description

Spreading glabrous shrub 0.6–1.5 m high. Branchlets terete, ±ribbed. Stipules (2–) 3–4 (–5) mm long, brittle, with at least thickened bases persistent. Phyllodes slightly inequilateral, narrowly elliptic to oblong-elliptic or oblanceolate, sometimes obovate or elliptic, ±undulate or twisted, (1.5–) 2–4 (–5.5) cm long, (4–) 5–15 mm wide, acute to obtuse, with coarsely to ±sharply pungent mucro, thick-coriaceous, smooth, very glaucous; midrib and marginal nerves prominent, yellow or greenish yellow; gland 3–7 (–10) mm above pulvinus. Inflorescences 2-headed racemes; raceme axes 1–2 mm long; peduncles 10–20 mm long; heads globular, 5–6 mm diam., 20–35-flowered, golden. Flowers 5-merous; sepals free. Pods irregularly twisted to loosely coiled, terete, to 6.5 cm long, 2–3 mm wide, thinly coriaceous to slightly crustaceous, black. Seeds longitudinal, oblong, 3 mm long, subnitid, dark brown, sometimes obscurely mottled; aril yellow, conical to galeiform.

Habitat

Grows in sand and on greyish clay flats in mallee woodland.

Specimens

W.A.: near Mt Heywood, J.S.Beard 6389 (PERTH); 8 km due W of Grass Patch, M.A.Burgman 1877 & S.McNee (PERTH); S of Mt Madden, J.Goodwin 227 (PERTH); 2.5 km S of Salmon Gums towards Esperance, B.R.Maslin 2492 (MEL, PERTH).

Notes

Related to A. merrallii which has usually puberulous branchlets, caducous stipules and shorter, less glaucous phyllodes. Superficially similar to A. dermatophylla which has longer stipules, peduncles surrounded at base by a tuft of hairs, hard-bony, narrowly oblong, wider pods and obliquely oriented, larger seeds. Also allied to A. acoma.

FOA Reference

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

Author

Minor edits by J.Rogers

B.R.Maslin