Common Name

Mt Mulgine Fluted Wattle

Family

Fabaceae

Distribution

Restricted to the Mt Mulgine area (c. 90 km E of Morawa), W.A.; locally abundant where it occurs.

Description

Multistemmed, obconic shrub (1–) 2–4 m high, rarely tree to 6 m high, stems and branches obviously longitudinally fluted. Bark smooth. New shoots lightly resinous, ±glabrous. Branchlets clearly flattened towards extremities, obscurely ribbed, glabrous or appressed-puberulous immediately below insertion of phyllodes. Phyllodes mostly narrowly elliptic, acute and innocuous, mostly straight, (4–) 5–10 (–14) cm long, 5–10 mm wide, green, or minutely appressed-puberulous between nerves or glabrous; longitudinal nerves numerous, fine and close together. Inflorescences simple, 1–2 per axil; peduncles 3–7 mm long, glabrous to very sparsely appressed-puberulous, ±resinous; heads obloid, 8–12 mm long, 6–8 mm diam., golden. Flowers 5-merous; sepals free to ¼ (–½)-united, spathulate. Pods ±straight, terete, 2–3.5 cm long, 1.4–1.8 mm wide, thinly crustaceous to coriaceous, ±glabrous red-brown. Seeds longitudinal, oblong, 2–2.5 mm long, mid-brown; aril white.

Habitat

Favours quartz substrates on steep slopes, ridges and along rock creek courses, in shrubland typically with A. burkittii and Allocasuarina acutivalvis.

Specimens

W.A.: E of Morawa [precise localities withheld for conservation reasons], D.Coultas & K.Greenacre VM-06 (PERTH), D.Coultas & C.Anderson 14 (PERTH), B.R.Maslin 9124 (AD, NSW, PERTH) and B.R.Maslin et al. BRM 9129 (PERTH).

Notes

A member of the ‘A. coolgardiensis group’, most closely related to A. latior. Phyllodes superficially similar to the more southerly distributed A. warramaba, but the two are not closely related. Acacia warramaba differs in its non-fluted stems, ±uncinate phyllodes, racemose inflorescences, smaller, globular heads and flat pods.

FOA Reference

Flora of Australia Project

Author

J.Reid, B.R.Maslin