Common Name

Graceful Wattle

Family

Fabaceae

Distribution

Occurs in S.A. from Wilmington to the Telowie Gorge area near Port Pirie.

Description

Shrub 1–2 m high, resinous, slightly viscid. Branchlets slender, glabrous; ribs yellow. Phyllodes filiform, straight or shallowly incurved, compressed, 5–10 cm long, c. 1 mm wide, obliquely and excentrically mucronate, green, glabrous, with 2 nerves per face separated by a groove; glands 1–4, with lowermost 1–1.5 cm above pulvinus. Inflorescences simple, (1–) 2 (–3) per axil; peduncles 5–8 mm long, puberulous; basal bract persistent; heads globular to obloid, 23–26-flowered, light golden. Flowers 5-merous; sepals 3/4- to almost completely united. Pods linear, raised over seeds, to 7 cm long, c. 2 mm wide, firmly chartaceous. Seeds longitudinal, oblong, 3.5–4 mm long; aril small.

Habitat

Grows in gorges and on rocky hillsides, often in shallow loam in open Eucalyptus woodland scrub.

Specimens

S.A.: Wilmington, B.Copley 3714 (AD, NSW); Mambray Ck, Mt Remarkable Natl Park, D.J.E.Whibley 4326 (PERTH).

Notes

A member of the ‘A. wilhelmiana group’ and similar to A. barattensis in its long, narrow, flat but thickened phyllodes with two obscure nerves on each face. Acacia barattensis, however, has 4-merous flowers and obscurely 3-nerved phyllodes lacking a longitudinal medial groove. Thought to hybridise with A. paradoxa in S.A.

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