Acacia havilandiorum Maiden
WATTLE
Acacias of Australia
Common Name
Needle Wattle, Haviland’s Wattle
Family
Fabaceae
Distribution
Discontinuous from the Eyre Peninsula, S.A. to near Gilgandra, N.S.W. but found mainly in Flinders Ra., S.A. and Griffith–Cobar area of N.S.W. In Vic. known only from west of Horsham in the NW (early collections from near Ouyen (in 1912) and Gerang Gerung (in 1918) are possibly from populations now extinct).
Description
Bushy shrub 1.5–3 m high; occasionally tree to 4 m high. Branchlets terete, glabrous. Phyllodes inclined to ascending, straight or slightly incurved, often incurved abruptly at gland, terete or subterete, 3–9 cm long, 0.8–1.5 mm wide, pungent to ±innocuous, rigid, very brittle and snapping easily and cleanly, grey-green, with numerous closely parallel fine nerves; gland in central part of phyllode. Inflorescences simple, 1–3 per axil; peduncles 4–8 mm long, glabrous; heads globular, 20–30-flowered, bright yellow; bracteoles obovate, oblong or quadrate. Flowers 4-merous; sepals irregularly united near base to 1/2‑united. Pods linear, ±constricted between seeds, straight or shallowly curved, to 10 cm long, 2–3 mm wide, thin-coriaceous, glabrous. Seeds longitudinal, oblong to ovate-elliptic, 3–3.5 mm long, glossy, dark brown; aril subapical, hood-like.
Habitat
Grows chiefly in sandy or loamy red soils in mallee and woodland communities on rocky hillsides and ridges.
Specimens
S.A.: Paralana, North Flinders Ra., J.Carrick 2029 (PERTH); 8 km W of Ungarra, B.Copley 3130 (PERTH). N.S.W.: 10.5 km W of Gubbata on Naradhan Rd, R.Coveny 12028 & P.Hind (AD, B, GH, K, NSW, PERTH, TL, US, Z). Vic.: between Horsham and Pimpinio on N side of an E–W road to W of the Western Hwy, Aug. 1983, K.Dobell s.n. (AD).
Notes
Often compared with A. rigens which is most readily distinguished by its hairy, ribbed branchlets and its hairy phyllodes which have fewer, yellowish nerves and which do not snap cleanly as in A. havilandiorum.
The species has been known since 1920 as A. havilandi or A. havilandii. It was published as A. havilandi to honour the collector Rev. E.Haviland as well as his son, therefore requiring a change of termination, as discussed by N.Hall & L.A.S.Johnson, The Names of Acacias of New South Wales 43 (1993).
FOA Reference
Data derived from Flora of Australia Volumes 11A (2001), 11B (2001) and 12 (1998), products of ABRS, ©Commonwealth of Australia
Author
R.S.Cowan
Minor edits by B.R.Maslin
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