Acacia arbiana Pedley, Austrobaileya 5: 307 (1999)
Spreading shrub to 1.5 m tall. Branchlets ribbed by decurrent bases of phyllodes, with scattered loosely appressed hairs. Phyllodes linear, straight, narrowed into a longish curved mucro, crowded, 8–16 mm long, 0.6–0.8 mm wide, without obvious nerves, with sparse, long, appressed hairs, glabrescent, gland 0–3 mm from base; pulvinus c. 0.5 mm long, Heads solitary, axillary, 24–30-flowered, golden yellow; peduncles 8–10 mm long, occasionally with 1 or 2 bracts below head. Flowers 5-merous; sepals c. 1/3-united, ciliate; corolla c. 2 mm long, united to about middle, with lobes obovate, glabrous; stamens c. 5 mm long; ovary glabrous. Pods similar to those of A. conferta , to 4.5 cm long, 10 –14 mm wide; valves rather membranous, somewhat glaucous, convex over seeds. Mature seeds not seen, transverse.
Confined to the summits of Ropers and Scotts Peak and perhaps other peaks of the Peak Range, E of Clermont, Qld. Recorded from trachyte outcrops in heath-like vegetation. Flowers July–Aug.
Acacia arbiana is close to A. conferta , but the phyllodes are more crowded, longer, narrower and distinctly mucronulate with long loosely appressed hairs, and it also lacks stipules. Its phyllodes resemble those of A. gittinsii which has spreading hairs on the stems, some heads in racemes and longitudinal seeds.
Type of accepted name
Ropers Peak, Leichhardt District, Qld, 2252’S, 14813’E, 23 Aug. 1990, P.I.Forster PIF7209 ; holo: BRI; iso: AD, BRI, CANB, DNA, K, MEL, MO, NSW, PERTH, PRE, Z.
Representative collections
Qld: Ropers Peak, A.R.Bean 569 (BRI); loc. id., A.R.Bean 630 (BRI); Scotts Peak, S.L.Everist 4427 (BRI); Peak Range, c. 30 km SW of Dysart, Jan. 1981, A.Podich s.n . (BRI).
(LP)
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.
