Acacia nana J.Williams (ms)
Shrub 0.2–2 m high, with juvenile bipinnate leaves often persistent on mature plants. Branchlets red to reddish brown, normally hairy, the hairs widely spreading or appressed. Phyllodes narrowly elliptic to oblanceolate, apices rounded-uncinate with a distinctly excentric mucro, +/- straight, 3–8 cm long, 7–16 mm wide, often drying reddish, glabrous or subglabrous, 1-nerved per face, obscurely penninerved; gland 2–11 (–15) mm above pulvinus, not connected to midrib by a nerve. Inflorescences racemose; raceme axes mostly 1.5–3.5 cm long, sparsely +/- spreading-hairy; peduncles 2–4 (–5) mm long; glabrous or sparsely +/- spreading-hairy; heads globular, 7–12-flowered, golden. Flowers 5 –merous; sepals united. Pods narrowly oblong to linear, to c. 4 cm long, 4–6 mm wide, chartaceous, curved, glabrous. Seeds longitudinal, elliptic, c. 4 mm long, dark brown; funicle extending to below the seeds but not encircling them as in A. rubida .
Disjunct on the Northern and Central tablelands of N.S.W.; southern populations occurs from Cullen Bullen to Capertee in the western Blue Mtns; northern populations occur in the Armidale district (near Ebor and Longford).
Acacia nana is a member of the ‘ Acacia microbotrya group’ and until recently was regarded as a dwarf variant of A. rubida . However, apart from its generally taller stature A. rubida is most readily distinguished by its normally glabrous branchlets, usually larger phyllodes (5–20 cm x 5–25 mm) which are often falcate and acute to acuminate (uncommonly obtuse but then not rounded-uncinate with a clearly excentric mucro as in A. nana ) and with the gland further removed from the pulvinus, generally more flowers per head (10–20), +/- straight, larger pods and funicles which encircle the seeds.
Representative collections
N.S.W.: Ben Bullen, 20 mi [32 km] NNW of Lithgow, E.F.Constable 7189 (NSW, PERTH); 61 km ENE of Armidale on the Ebor road, R.G.Coveny 5670 & N.Lander (BRI, CANB, K, MEL, MO, NE, NSW, NY, PERTH, UNSW); 67 km E of Armidale at turnoff to Point Lookout from Armidale–Ebor road, 19 Sept. 1974, J.B.Williams s.n. (MO, NSW, PERTH).
(BRM)
In Fl. Australia this species is noted as a dwarf variant under A. rubida .
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.
