Family

Fabaceae

Distribution

Restricted to the Bonaparte Archipelago area from Heywood Is. NE to Bigge Is. and the nearby mainland, northern W.A.

Description

Weak tree or shrub 2–7 m high. Branchlets terete, pruinose, glabrous. Phyllodes narrowly elongate-elliptic to linear, straight to shallowly curved, 15–25 cm long, 6–14 mm wide, attenuate at base, acute to acuminate, coriaceous, glabrous, with a prominent central nerve, with a second weaker longitudinal nerve sometimes present; secondary nerves ±reticulate; marginal nerves discrete and yellow; lowermost gland ±basal, with 1–4 smaller glands on upper marginal nerve; pulvinus 4–5 mm long, pruinose. Inflorescences in axillary or terminal racemes, or simple; raceme axes 2–10 cm long, ±pruinose, glabrous; peduncles 1–4 in phyllode axils or at nodes along raceme axes, 8–25 mm long, glabrous; heads globular, ±5 mm diam. (when dry), densely 46–56-flowered, golden. Flowers 5-merous; sepals 3/4-united, apically densely puberulous with white and pale yellow hairs; petal indumentum as on sepal apices. Pods stipitate, linear, straight, flat, to 11 cm long, 10–11 mm wide, coriaceous to subwoody, openly reticulate, glabrous; margins thickened. Seeds (immature) oblique; aril apical, galeiform.

Habitat

Grows in sand over sandstone and also on dolomite, usually in eucalypt woodland.

Specimens

W.A.: Naturalist Is., Prince Frederick Harbour, K.F.Kenneally 9931 (MEL, PERTH); Byam Martin Is., Bonaparte Archipelago, P.G.Wilson 11467 (PERTH).

Notes

Closely related to A. spectra; also related to A. latescens which has non-pruinose branchlets, clearly 2-nerved phyllodes, cream to pale yellow heads in short, axillary racemes, glabrous to subglabrous petals, somewhat broader pods and relatively small arils. Acacia orthotropica is also related to A. kenneallyi despite its superficially dissimilar appearance.

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.Reid

R.S.Cowan