Common Name

Morrison’s Ranji

Family

Fabaceae

Distribution

Scattered from Nanutarra N to Mardi and Indee stns, E to the Nullagine-Newman area; also Gascoyne R. at Carnarvon and possibly Rudall R. Natl Park to the E of Newman. Less common than the typical variety.

Description

Obconic shrub with ascending (not widely spreading) stems and main branches, crowns sub-open. Branchlets not pruinose or occasionally faintly so. Stipules 2–5 mm long, spiny to sub-spiny, sometimes absent, slender and commonly brittle (normally less robust than in var. pyrifolia). Phyllodes obovate or elliptic to narrowly elliptic, mostly 2–5.5 cm long and 1.5–2.5 cm wide, thinly coriaceous, dull milky green, infrequently ±glaucous, not or scarcely pruinose.

Phenology

Flowers mainly July–Aug.

Habitat

Found mostly along watercourses in stony, unconsolidated colluvium beneath eucalypts and A. citrinoviridis.

Specimens

W.A.: Carnarvon, A.M.Ashby 1523 (PERTH); Ashburton R. on North West Coastal Hwy, B.R.Maslin 5223 (PERTH).

Notes

Acacia morrisonii and A. pyrifolia var. morrisonii were described independently and based on different specimens of the same Morrison collection. Both Maiden and Domin referred to Scott. Bot. Rev. 1: 97 (1912) where Morrison informally described the taxon and compared it with ‘A. pyrifolia’ (Morrison’s A. pyrifolia was most probably A. inaequilatera).

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