Common Name

Mullan Wattle, Salt Wattle

Family

Fabaceae

Distribution

Occurs around Gregory Salt Lake, northern W.A., extending E to the Nongra Lake–Tanami area, N.T.

Description

Tree to 12 m high. Bark longitudinally fissured, grey. Branchlets densely silvery white appressed-puberulous towards extremities. Phyllodes linear, 8–18 cm long, 2–5 mm wide, densely silvery white appressed-puberulous; hairs confined to between the nerves with age, with numerous closely parallel fine nerves. Inflorescences 2–4-headed racemes; raceme axes 2–3 mm long, appressed-puberulous; peduncles 5–8 mm long, densely appressed-puberulous; hairs pale yellow ageing white; heads globular, 5 mm diam., 20–25-flowered, golden. Flowers 5-merous; sepals 3/4-united. Pods submoniliform, raised over and constricted between seeds, straight, to 13 cm long, 4–5 mm wide, coriaceous, longitudinally reticulate, densely white appressed-puberulous. Seeds longitudinal, oblong to broadly elliptic, 4–6 mm long, black; aril small, white.

Habitat

Grows mainly in loam and in clay depressions, some of which are periodically waterlogged, in open scrub, low open forest and woodland.

Specimens

W.A.: SW edge of Bilbi Plain, L.Thomson LXT 95 (PERTH). N.T.: Sanctuary Swamp, J.R.Maconochie 2454 (NSW, PERTH).

Notes

Related to the more easterly distributed A. tephrina with which it was earlier confused but which differs most obviously in its pod characters. See L.Pedley, Austrobaileya 1: 342 (1981) and 2: 235 (1986), for further discussion.

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, B.R.Maslin

Minor edits by J.Rogers