Family

Fabaceae

Distribution

Occurs in Upper Victoria R. area, at Winnecke Ck and near Gardiner Ra., N.T.; also from the far eastern Kimberley region of W.A., E of Halls Creek.

Description

Shrub to 3 m high. Branchlets terete, hispidulous and glandular-puberulous. Stipules persistent, 3.5–4 mm long, partially connate, with free portion linear-subulate. Phyllodes crowded, ascending, inequilaterally broadly elliptic or triangular, 4–8 mm long, 2–5 mm wide, acute, pungent, coriaceous, puberulous (some hairs gland-tipped), with 3 or 4 (or more) distant slightly raised nerves; gland 1 or 2, ±protruding from margin. Inflorescences simple, 1 per axil; peduncles (4–) 8–13 (–16) mm long, glandular-puberulous; heads ±globular, 8–10 mm diam., 30–40-flowered, golden; bracteoles exserted in buds, 3–4 mm long, pungent. Flowers with irregularly 5–11-lobed perianth; sepals 1/3–1/2-united; petals 2/3–3/4-united; petal lobes 7 or 8; stamens partially united. Pods linear, slightly raised over seeds, straight to curved, to 8 cm long, 5–8 (–9) mm wide, crustaceous, obliquely venulose, glandular-puberulous or glandular-pilose. Seeds oblique, elliptic, ±4 mm long; aril apical.

Habitat

Grows in shallow soil on sandstone, in shrubland and woodland.

Specimens

W.A.: Mt Junction, Gordon Downs Stn, D.E.Albrecht 7694 (DNA, PERTH); Osmond Plateau, I.D.Cowie 1906 (CANB, DNA, MEL, PERTH). N.T.: 74 km SW of Victoria R. HS, P.K.Latz 5329 (BRI, PERTH); 41.8 km S of Hooker Ck–Birrindudu–Tanami Junction, J.R.Maconochie 1741 (BRI, PERTH).

Notes

A member of the ‘A. deltoidea’ group. Related to A. deltoidea which has regularly pentamerous flowers in contrast to the 5–11-lobed calyx and 7- or 8-lobed corolla of A. stipulosa, which also has the filaments united basally, a character-state that appears in the ‘A. lycopodifolia group’ and other groups of the tropical region. Also related to A. froggattii.

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

Minor edits by J.Reid & J.Rogers