Acacia faucium Pedley, Austrobaileya 5(2): 314 (1999)
Trees to 10 m tall; branchlets acutely angular, somewhat scurfy, sparsely and minutely appressed-hairy on young plants, glabrescent. Phyllodes straight or somewhat falcate, widest above the middle, tapering into pulvinus 3–5 mm long, 13.5–18 cm long, (10–) 20–27 mm wide, rather chartaceous, glabrous or sparsely appressed-hairy on young plants; longitudinal nerves parallel and rather crowded (2–2.5/mm), 2 or 3 more prominent than the rest and confluent with each other near lower margin towards the base, secondary nerves anastomosing; gland basal, prominent. Inflorescences simple; spikes 35–55 mm long, moderately dense, rachis pruinose; peduncles 5–8 mm long, reddish. Flowers 5-merous; calyx gamosepalous, rather broad, usually with a few spreading hyaline hairs towards base; ovary hirsute. Pods linear, to c. 8 cm long, 3 mm wide, straight, cartilaginous, brown-black, glabrous, somewhat pruinose, marginal nerves thick and yellowish. Seeds longitudinal, pale brown, 3.5–4 mm long, c. 2 mm wide; funicle yellow, folded c. 3 times and thickened to form a cupular aril.
Common in the headwaters of Torrens Creek in White Mountains, Qld. where it occurs in gorges in sandstone. It also occurs in broken country farther south, about 100 km north of Clermont.
Acacia faucium is closely allied to A. leiocalyx but has usually longer, more chartaceous phyllodes with more widely spaced secondary nerves, shorter spikes, usually a few hairs on the calyx and valves of the pod cartilaginous.
Type of accepted name
North Kennedy District: Bertya Creek, W of "Warang", White Mountains National Park, Qld, 2027’S 14446’E, 21 June 1992, A.R.Bean 4611; holo: BRI.
Representative collections
Qld: Torrens Creek Gorge, White Mountains, 2028’S 14455’E, Oct 1991, R.J.Cumming 11422 (BRI); 88 km NE of Clermont, 2209’S 14808’E, Jun 1972, McDonald 556 (BRI); 3 miles [c. 5 km] NE of ‘New Twin Hills’ H.S., Aug 1964, L.Pedley 1738 (BRI).
(LP & BRM)
This species was not included in the Fl. Australia treatment of Acacia ; the above account, which is based on the original description, was provided for use in WATTLE by L.Pedley.
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.
