Acacia dorothea Maiden, Proc. Linn. Soc. New South Wales 26: 12; pl. 1 (1901)
Dorothy’s Wattle
Shrub usually 1–2 m high, often suckering. Branchlets with indumentum of dense, straight, closely appressed, fine, white hairs. New shoots sericeous, the hairs light golden, cream or ferruginous, ageing silvery white. Phyllodes ascending to erect, narrowly elliptic to oblanceolate, mostly shallowly incurved, mostly 5–8 cm long and 8–16 mm wide, acute or obtuse-mucronate, grey-green to subglaucous, with indumentum as on branchlets but sparse or rarely absent with age; midrib prominent; lateral nerves obscure; gland rather prominent, not raised, normally 1–3.5 cm above base. Inflorescences racemose; raceme axes 20–35 mm long, densely appressed-hairy; peduncles 1.5–2.5 mm long; heads obloid to shortly cylindrical, 20–25-flowered, bright golden. Flowers 5-merous; sepals united. Pods narrowly oblong, to 5 cm long, c. 7 mm wide, sericeous with silvery white hairs. Seeds (immature) longitudinal.
Restricted in N.S.W. to the Great Divide from Newnes S to near Robertson. Grows in sand or loam over sandstone, in Eucalyptus forest or woodland.
Acacia dorothea is normally a shrub 1–2 m high and often has a mallee-like habit; however, it is sometimes spindly and reaches 3–5 m high.
The unusual combination of obloid flower-heads and 1-nerved phyllodes of A. dorothea occurs also in A. lucasii and A. costiniana which differ by generally shorter phyllodes and the nature of their indumentum. The flower-head shape of A. dorothea , along with other characters discussed by M.D.Tindale, Telopea 1: 73 (1975), distinguishes it from A. barringtonensis and its allies.
Type of accepted name
Clarence Siding, N.S.W., Sept. 1899, Apr. 1900 and Jan. 1901, J.H.Maiden , and Nov. 1901, J.L.Boorman ; syn: NSW; Mt Wilson, N.S.W., Oct. 1899, J.H.Maiden ; syn: NSW; Mt Victoria, N.S.W., Aug. 1898, J.H.Maiden ; syn: NSW; Mt Victoria, N.S.W., Sept. 1898, J.H.Maiden ; syn: NSW; isosyn: AD n.v. , B n.v. , BRI n.v. , CANB n.v. , K n.v. , L n.v. , MEL n.v. , PERTH, TL n.v. , UC n.v. , US n.v., Z n.v.
Illustrations
J.H.Maiden, loc. cit. and Forest Fl. New South Wales 6: pl. 208 (1915); I.B.Armitage, Acacias New South Wales 113 (1978); T.Tame, Acacias SE Australia 144, fig. 155, pl. 155 (1992).
Representative collections
N.S.W.: 3.2 km SW of Mt Wilson, Blue Mtns, R.Coveny 2901 (NSW, PERTH); 0.8 km c. W of the Kangaroo R. Bridge on the Jamberoo- Robertson road, R.Coveny 7342 (NSW); 33.8 km from Clarence on road to Galah Mtn via Newnes State Forest, D.J.McGillivray 1413 (NSW).
(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.
