Common Name

Flinders Range Wattle, Willow-leaved Wattle, Winter Wattle, Port Lincoln Wattle

Family

Fabaceae

Distribution

Occurs in the Gawler Ra. from Hiltaba Stn to near Cowell and in the Flinders Ra. from Arkaba to Telowie Gorge, also near Port Lincoln, Eyre Peninsula, S.A. Naturalised in places in south western W.A., eastern S.A., N.S.W. and Vic.

Description

Bushy, spreading shrub 2–4 m high. Bark green on young plants. Branchlets often ultimately pendulous, angled at extremities, normally pruinose, glabrous. Phyllodes narrowly to broadly linear, sometimes narrowly elliptic, 5–14 cm long, 3–8 mm wide, thin, glabrous; mucro delicate, 1–2 mm long, straight or curved; midrib rather prominent; lateral nerves absent or obscure; gland not prominent, 1–10 mm above pulvinus. Inflorescences 8–16-headed racemes; raceme axes 2–4 cm long, glabrous, pruinose, frequently growing out, enclosed when young by conspicuous imbricate bracts; peduncles 6–10 mm long, slender, glabrous; heads globular, 12–17-flowered, pale yellow to lemon yellow. Flowers 5-merous; sepals free. Pods normally 6–12 cm long, 6–12 mm wide, thinly coriaceous, commonly pruinose, glabrous. Seeds longitudinal, oblong to elliptic, 5–6.5 mm long, ±dull, dark brown to black; aril narrow.

Phenology

Flowers autumn–winter.

Habitat

Grows mainly on hills among rocky outcrops or in valleys along rocky creeks.

Specimens

S.A.: Telowie Gorge, Flinders Ra., B.Copley 2917 (AD, NSW); c. 13 km W of Cowell on Cleve–Cowell road, 29 June 1959, T.R.N.Lothian s.n. (AD); Scrubby Peak, 15 May 1967, S.A.Pastoral Board s.n. (AD, PERTH).

Notes

Popular in cultivation with many forms, some having very pendulous branchlets, others more upright, fide W.R.Elliot & D.L.Jones, Encycl. Austral. Pl. 2: 68 (1982). The registered cultivar, ‘Parsons Cascade’ is recognized for this species, fide M.Hitchcock, Austral. Pl. 22: 32 (2004), for description.

Similar to A. suaveolens.

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 B.R.Maslin & J.Rogers

B.R.Maslin