Acacia pickardii Tindale, Telopea 1: 372 (1978)
Bushy shrub or tree 3–5 m high, spreading by suckering. Branchlets glabrous or subglabrous, scurfy. Stipules spinose, (3–) 5–12 mm long, spreading. Phyllodes sessile, erect, terete, 2–6.5 cm long, 1–2 mm diam., pungent, with slender cusp, rigid, minutely hirtellous, occasionally glabrous, often scurfy, obscurely 4-nerved; gland basal, discoidal, to 0.7 mm diam., a smaller gland at base of cusp. Inflorescences simple, 1 or 2 per axil; peduncles 1.5–2.5 cm long, minutely hirtellous; heads globular, 35–40-flowered, golden. Flowers 5-merous; sepals free (united in protologue). Pods narrowly oblong, to 4 cm long and 14 mm wide, chartaceous, finely and openly obliquely reticulate, light brown, glabrous. Seeds (very immature) seemingly transverse with a filiform, straight funicle.
Known from only Mt Gason Bore on the Birdsville Track and c. 100 km N of Mt Gason in north-eastern S.A., also the Andado Stn–O’Neill Point area in south-eastern N.T., c. 400 km NW of Mt Gason. Grows on gibber-covered sandplains and in stony sand over clay on low residual mesas and adjacent flats, in association with Atriplex and Sclerolaena spp.
Perhaps most closely related to A. cuspidifolia but distinguished from this species, and other members of the ‘ A. victoriae group’, by its pungent, terete phyllodes. See also A. atrox .
Conservation status ‘vulnerable’ according to J.Leigh et al. , Rare Threatened Austral. Pl. 38 (1981).
Type of accepted name
8 km N of Mt Gason Bore, Birdsville Track, S.A., 24 Dec. 1971, J.Pickard 1761 ; holo: NSW n.v. ; iso: AD, K.
Illustrations
B.R.Maslin, in J.P.Jessop (ed.), Fl. Centr. Australia 119, fig. 158B (1981); D.J.E.Whibley & D.E.Symon, Acacias S. Australia 2nd edn, 111 (1992); B.R.Maslin, Nuytsia 8: 296, fig. 4I- K (1992).
Representative collections
N.T.: Andado Stn, P.K.Latz 6790 (PERTH). S.A.: Mt Gason Bore, F.Badman 317 (AD).
(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.
