Acacia abbreviata Maslin , J. Adelaide Bot. Gard . 2: 301; 304, fig. 1 & 320, fig. 8 (1980)
Spreading, ±glabrous, resinous shrub 0.3–0.6 m high, 1–3.6 m diam. Bark ±smooth, minutely fissured, pale greyish brown. Branchlets angular towards apices, yellowish to red-brown, minutely resin-haired, glabrescent; ridges obscure. Phyllodes to 6 per node, linear, narrowly oblong or very narrowly oblanceolate, straight to shallowly sigmoid, ±terete, 0.4–2.5 cm long, 0.6–1.2 mm wide, mucronulate, thick, glabrous, multistriate; nerves indistinct; gland 1, obscure, basal, to 3 mm above pulvinus. Spikes 0.7–1.5 (–2) cm long, golden. Flowers 5-merous; calyx 1.0–1.4 mm long, dissected to 1/3–2/3, glabrous; corolla 1.6–2.2 mm long, dissected to 1/3–1/2, glabrous; ovary capped, glabrous, minutely tuberculate. Pods linear-oblanceolate, tapering towards base, flat, 2.5–6.5 cm long, 3–5 mm wide, subwoody, opening elastically from apex; margins prominent. Seeds oblique to longitudinal, narrowly oblong, 3–4.5 mm long, brown; funicle-aril narrowly turbinate.
Restricted to the Tanami district, N.T., near the W.A. border. Grows in shallow red clay loam on stony lateritic plains and ridges with spinifex. Flowers Apr.–Oct.
An unusual flat phyllode form occurs at the type locality. Its phyllodes are 2–3 mm wide and oblong-oblanceolate, e.g. 6 km W of Tanami Mine, Apr. 1991, G.Tuckerman s.n. (NSW, PERTH). B.R.Maslin, in J.Jessop (ed.), Fl. Centr. Australia 137 (1981) suggested that A. abbreviata may be of hybrid origin ( A. hilliana x A. minutifolia ).
Type of accepted name
Tanami, N.T., 25 May 1970, J.R.Maconochie 1026 ; holo: PERTH; iso: K, MEL, NT, PERTH.
Illustration
B.R.Maslin, op. cit. 304, fig. 1 (1980).
Representative collections
N.T.: Tanami, 2 miles [3.2 km] W of old mine, C.R.Dunlop 2342 (BRI, CANB, NSW, NT, PERTH); 4 miles [6.4 km] from Tanami towards W.A. border, C.H.Gittins 2303 (BRI, NSW); Tanami Mining Camp, J.R.Maconochie 1099 (AD, BRI, MEL, NSW, NT, PERTH).
(NSW)
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.
