Acacia dentifera Benth., Botanist 4: t. 179 (1840)
Tooth-bearing Acacia
Shrub 2–3 m high. Branchlets straight, brown-dotted, glabrous. Stipules persistent but sometimes only bases remaining as indurate, tooth-like projections at old nodes. Phyllodes linear, sometimes narrowly elliptic, straight to shallowly curved, 7–15 cm long, 2–5 mm wide, acute, mucronate, thin, green, glabrous, punctate by circular, red-brown resin-hairs when young; midrib prominent; lateral nerves absent or obscure; gland commonly absent; pulvinus 0.5–1 mm long. Inflorescences simple but initiated on new shoots which sometimes resemble terminal racemes; peduncles twinned, 1–2 cm long, glabrous, with a caducous bract near or above middle, the base ebracteate; heads globular to obloid, 30–45-flowered, golden. Flowers 5-merous; sepals free. Pods terete, slightly constricted between seeds, to 6.5 cm long, 4 mm wide, thinly coriaceous, red-brown, obscurely longitudinally reticulate, glabrous. Seeds longitudinal, oblong, 3.5–4.5 mm long, semi-glossy, dark brown; aril white.
Found from the Helena Valley near Perth, S to near Bridgetown with one collection from Warriup Hill. c. 50 km NE of Albany, south-western W.A. Grows in granitic or lateritic soil, loam, clayey sand over granite and clay, often near watercourses or granite rocks in temperate Eucalyptus forest.
The specimen, J.Drummond 5: 7, cited by G.Bentham, Fl. Austral. 2: 261 (1864), is A. veronica . Also, Bentham erroneously described the aril colour of A. dentifera as orange.
This species, like A. trigonophylla , is unusual in that the aril faces the base, rather than the apex of the pod.
Closely allied to A. graniticola and A. tuberculata , and related in a general way with A. nodiflora . Superficially similar to A. dietrichiana from Qld, which is recognised especially by its viscid branchlets, generally longer phyllodes, minute raceme axes and exarillate seeds.
Type of accepted name
cultivated by Messrs. Rollisson, Tooting, England, seed from W.A. per J.Drummond; probable holo: K—specimen seems a reasonable match for illustration in protologue, without collecting details but Bentham has annotated it ‘Acacia dentifera Benth. Botanist’.
Synonymy
Acacia douglasii Schmitt & Armand ex Ser., Fl. Jard . 3: 482 (1849). Type: [Cultivated] at Ecully near Lyon, Schmitt & Armand ; ?holo: LY- specimen without locality details but N.C.Seringe has annotated it ‘Mm Schmitt et Armand, 1848’.
[ Acacia longifolia auct. non (Andrews) Willd.: J.Paxton, Paxton’s Mag. Bot . 12: 269, pl. (1846)]
Illustrations
G.Bentham, loc. cit. ; J.Paxton, loc. cit .; W.J.Hooker, Bot. Mag . 69: t. 4032 (1843).
Representative collections
W.A.: Swan R., J.Drummond s.n . (K, MPU) and coll.2, no.298 (BM, G, K, P); Warriup Hill, S coast NE of Albany, K.Newbey 2627 (PERTH); near Maddington, Canning R., L.Preiss 932 (BM, C, FI, K, LUND, M, MO, NAP, RO (sphalm ‘787’) & TCD (sphalm ‘787’).
(BRM)
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.
