Acacia chisholmii F.M.Bailey, Queensland Agric. J. 4: 47 (1899)
Turpentine Bush
Multistemmed, spreading, resinous shrub to 4 m high. Bark ‘Minni Ritchi’. Branchlets angular, purplish brown or red-brown, with minutely crenulated, weakly appressed-villous ridges, the interstices glabrous, lenticellate. Phyllodes erect, linear, flat, 1.5–5.5 cm long, 0.8–2 mm wide, with weakly villous margins, pungent-pointed, thinly coriaceous, with 2 prominent, raised, longitudinal, villous veins, often with 1 subprominent parallel vein; gland 1, inconspicuous, basal, 2.3–9.5 mm above pulvinus. Spikes 13–28 mm long, golden. Flowers 5-merous; calyx 0.4–1 mm long, cut to 2/5–3/4, the margins and midribs ciliolate; corolla 1.1–1.6 mm long, cut to less than 1/2, glabrous; ovary scurfy-scaly to villous. Pods linear, flat, constricted between seeds, curved, 2.5–14 cm long, coriaceous, reticulate; margins pale. Seeds oblique, narrowly oblong-elliptic, 3.6–4.5 mm long, dark brown to black; pleurogram with pitted halo; areole circular to obovate, closed, depressed, dark grey-brown to dark brown.
Occurs in western Qld, from 18S to 23S and westwards to 146E, common in the Mount Isa-Cloncurry area, on stony, often lateritic plains with shallow, sandy soils, on escarpments or in undulating country, grasslands or eucalypt-spinifex woodland. L.Pedley, Proc. Roy. Soc. Queensland 75: 29 (1964), cites a single specimen from near Lake Nash, N.T. Flowers May–Aug.
L.Pedley, Austrobaileya 1: 124 (1978), describes the phyllodes and peduncles as glabrous but this is not so in the material (including the isotypes) at NSW; also he states that the spikes are in pairs which is uncommon in the NSW collections.
The inflorescences are transformed by insects into stellate or pin-cushion-type galls, e.g. M.Lazarides 4386 and G.P.Guymer 496 .
Related to A. lysiphloia and A. trachycarpa but distinguished by its narrow, linear, 2-nerved phyllodes. Other related species include A. effusa , A. gracillima and A. affin. trachycarpa . Hybridizes with A. monticola .
Details of ecology, utilisation, etc. of A. chisholmii are given in L.J.Thomson & N.Hall, Austral. Acacias no. 25, CSIRO Division of Forestry & Forest Products (1989).
Type of accepted name
Prairie, Torrens Ck, Qld, 1898, W.R.Chisholm ; holo: BRI; iso: MEL, NSW.
Synonymy
Racosperma chisholmii (F.M.Bailey) Pedley, Austrobaileya 2: 346 (1987). Type: as for accepted name.
Acacia costinervis Domin, Biblioth. Bot . 89: 267 (1926). Type: Cloncurry, Qld, Feb. 1910, K.Domin ; holo: PR n.v ., fide L.Pedley, Austrobaileya 1: 124 (1978).
Illustrations
B.R.Maslin, in J.Jessop (ed.), Fl. Centr. Australia 125, fig. 161A (1981); K.A.W.Williams, Native Pl. Queensland 2: 21 (1984).
Representative collections
N.T.: 7 miles [11 km] NW of ‘Lake Nash’, R.A.Perry 918 (L.Pedley, loc. cit. ). Qld: 25 km W [of] Cloncurry, G.P.Guymer 496 (NE, NSW); 24 miles [38.4 km] NW of Duchess Township, M.Lazarides 4386 (CANB, MEL, NSW); 40 km N of Georgetown, B.L.Rice 2417 (NSW); 126 km NW of Boulia, T.& J.Whaite 3901 (A, CANB, CHR, NSW).
(NSW)
The information presented here originally appeared on the WATTLE CD-ROM which was jointly published by the Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra, and the Department of Parks and Wildlife, Perth; it was produced by CSIRO Publishing from where it is available for purchase. The WATTLE custodians are thanked for allowing us to post this information here.
