Acacia gnidium Benth., Fl. Austral. 2: 359 (1864)
Dense, spreading, glabrous, somewhat resinous, fragrant shrub to 4 m high. Branchlets somewhat angular at extremities. Phyllodes ascending to erect, narrowly linear, straight to shallowly incurved, flat, 3–5 cm long, 1–2 mm wide, l:w = 20–50, excentrically mucronulate with a thickened mucro, green; midrib neither prominent nor raised; lateral nerves absent; gland obscure, 1–7 mm above pulvinus, also at base of mucro. Inflorescences simple, 1 per axil; peduncles 5–12 mm long, the base ebracteate; heads globular, 15–25-flowered, golden. Flowers mostly 5-merous; sepals united. Pods narrowly oblong, slightly rounded over seeds and barely constricted between them, to 6 cm long, 5–6 mm wide, chartaceous, obscurely reticulate. Seeds (very immature) longitudinal.
Scattered in central Qld from Kroombit Tops NP (near Biloela), Mt Pluto and Alpha Stn to just W of Springsure and the Chesterton Ra. (W of Roma), also occurs in north-central Qld in the Peak Ra. and White Mtns. Grows in rugged sandstone country.
A member of the ‘ A. johnsonii group’ and distinguished from its close relatives A. eremophiloides , A. ixodes and A. hockingsii by phyllode proportions.
Type of accepted name
Subtropical New Holland [near Mt Pluto, Qld], ‘Tree 12 feet. Foot of sandstone mountains’, 11 Sept. 1846, T.L.Mitchell 289 ; holo: K; iso (specimens annotated ‘19. Bidwill’): K, NSW (Fragment ex K), PERTH (Fragment ex NSW).
Synonymy
Racosperma gnidium (Benth.) Pedley, Austrobaileya 2: 349 (1987). Type: as for accepted name.
Representative collections
Qld: Scotts Peak, c. 60 km ESE of Clermont, S.L.Everist 4412 (BRI); ‘Warang Holding’, White Mtns, D.Fell 1339 & Swain (PERTH); On Glenlee Rd, WNW of Springsure, B.O’Keefe 896 (BRI).
(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.
