Acacia affin. jennerae
Somewhat spindly, straggly shrubs 2–3 m tall, crowns openly branched and not densely foliaged, often suckering to form open colonies. Bark generally red to brown or bronze. Branchlets glabrous. Phyllodes linear to narrowly elliptic, acute to acuminate, 7.5–15 cm long, 5–13 (–17) mm wide (broadest on young plants), thinly coriaceous, widely spreading, straight to shallowly curved, glabrous, dull, pale green to sub-glaucous, 1-nerved; glands not prominent, 1 or 2, the lowermost normally 10–50 mm above pulvinus. Inflorescences (3–) 5–12 (–18)-branched racemes, the axes (1–) 2–6.5 (–9) cm long and glabrous; heads globular, 7 mm diam. when fresh, golden, 20–30-flowered; bracteole laminae with rather sparse whitish hairs on the margins; peduncles 4–6 mm long, glabrous. Flowers 5-merous; sepals about 5/6-united. Pods linear to sub-moniliform, mostly 5–8 cm long, 5–6 mm wide, thinly coriaceous to firmly chartaceous, glabrous, dark brown. Seeds longitudinal, 4–5 mm long, about 3 mm wide, dull, black; funicle yellow to greenish yellow (fresh), drying light brown or dark red-brown, 1/2–3/4 encircling the seed in a single fold.
Of scattered occurrence in a small area NE of Kalannie, W.A.
This taxon is a member of the " Acacia microbotrya group". It is most closely related to A. jennerae but differs most obviously in having a sparser crowns, generally longer, less glaucous phyllodes with the lowermost glands generally further removed from the pulvinus, different bracteole hairs, narrower pods and smaller seeds with the funicle drying light brown or dark red-brown.
Five members of the " Acacia microbotrya group" occur in the Kalannie region, namely, A. brumalis (incurved phyllode variant and light land variant), A. jennerae , A. affin. jennerae and A. microbotrya var. borealis . Considerable work (field and laboratory studies) is still needed to satisfactorily resolve the taxonomy of the Western Australian members of this group and it is therefore inappropriate to formally describe A. affin. jennerae in isolation, even though it has a fairly distinctive facies. Acacia brumalis (light land variant) is possibly a hybrid between A. microbotrya var. borealis and A. affin. jennerae.
Representative collections
W.A.: 27 km due N of Kalannie, Glamoff Rd 0.5 km W of Goodlands Rd, B.R.Maslin 7706 (PERTH); about 22 km due E of Kalannie, on Scotsman Rd 0.3 km E of Kulja Central Rd, B.R.Maslin 7863 (PERTH).
(BRM)
This species was not included in the Fl. Australia treatment of Acacia . The above account is based on the treatment presented in: Maslin, B.R. (1998), Wattle of the Kalannie region: their identification, characteristics and utilisation. CDROM Publication. (Department of Conservation and Land Management: Perth.)
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.
