WATTLE

Acacias of Australia

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Acacia plicata Maslin

Family

Fabaceae

Distribution

Restricted to Hill R. area and Cataby Brook, south-western W.A.

Description

Shrub usually 1-2 m high. Branchlets shortly villous to pubescent-hirsute. Pinnae mostly 2 or 3 pairs, 2-5 mm long (proximal pinnae), 10-20 mm long (distal pinnae); petiole c. 1 mm long; rachis 4-15 mm long; pinnules 1 or 2 pairs (proximal pinnae), 3-6 (-8) pairs (distal pinnae), ±narrowly oblong, 6-15 mm long, 1-4 mm wide, slightly recurved to revolute, green, hirsutellous; gland on rachis at base of distal pinnae on bijugate leaves, subsequently present or absent when > 2 pinnae, sessile, with additional glands normally on pinna-rachae at base of uppermost 1-3 pairs of pinnules. Inflorescences simple, 1 per axil; peduncles 10-30 mm long, usually puberulous to subglabrous; heads globular, 40-55-flowered, golden; bracteoles pilose; hairs c. 1.5 mm long and especially conspicuous in buds. Flowers 5‑merous; sepals 2/3-5/6-united with pilose lobes. Pods undulate, 1-2 cm long, 5 mm wide, shortly villous. Seeds oblique, broadly elliptic to globose, 3-4 mm long.

Habitat

Grows mostly in loam and loamy clay with sandstone and siltstone along watercourses in Wandoo (Eucalyptus wandoo) and York Gum (E. loxophleba subsp. loxophleba) woodland.

Specimens

W.A.: Cataby Brook crossing on Eneabba–Gingin road, B.R.Maslin 1474a (CANB, PERTH); c. 19 km E of Jurien Bay, B.R.Maslin 2624 (AD, NSW, PERTH).

Notes

Distinctive by its undulate pods and its bracteole laminae and calyx lobes which possess a few, long, spreading hairs that are conspicuously exserted in the buds. Acacia drewiana subsp. drewiana has a similar calyx indumentum. A variant with a low, straggly habit (i.e. 0.3 m high) and completely glabrous peduncles occurs at Mt Lesueur (e.g. E.A.Griffin 2140, PERTH, TLF).

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

Minor edits by J.Reid