Common Name

Barrens Kindred Wattle

Family

Fabaceae

Distribution

Restricted to Fitzgerald R. Natl Park, south-western W.A.

Description

Diffuse open shrub to 1 m high. Branchlets grey, glabrous or sparsely appressed-puberulous. Stipules c. 1 mm long. Phyllodes verticillate with nodes 1–2.5 cm apart, 6–9 per whorl, patent to slightly reflexed, straight or shallowly recurved, tetragonous in section, sometimes trigonous, 8–12 (-15) mm long, 1 mm wide, pungent with a slender cusp 1 mm long, rigid, glabrous, sometimes subglabrous, 4-nerved, sometimes imperfectly 3-nerved, deeply channelled between nerves when dry. Inflorescences simple, 1 or 2 per axil; peduncles 2–5 (-10) mm long, glabrous; heads globular to slightly obloid, 16–20-flowered, cream to pale yellow. Flowers 4-merous; sepals 2/3–3/4-united. Pods ±moniliform, to 7 cm long, 3–4 mm wide, firmly chartaceous, dark brown, glabrous. Seeds longitudinal, widely oblong-elliptic, c. 4 mm long, slightly shiny, dark brown; aril terminal, conical.

Habitat

Grows in sand in heath, scrub and shrubland dominated by Eucalyptus tetraptera.

Specimens

W.A.: type locality, B.R.Maslin 3482 (B, BRI, K, L, MEL, NSW, PERTH, RSA).

Notes

Related to A. argutifolia. Superficially resembles A. cedroides which also has verticillate, pungent phyllodes and grows in the Fitzgerald R. Natl Park but has longer, inclined to ascending phyllodes, striate-ribbed branchlets, 5-merous flowers and coarsely striate pods.

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