Acacia auripila R.S.Cowan & Maslin, Nuytsia 12: 415 (1999)
Rudall River Myall
Tree to c. 3 m high, the crown dense and silvery green. Bark fissured, grey. Branchlets slightly ribbed, appressed-puberulous towards extremities, glabrescent. Phyllodes erect, straight to slightly curved, terete to subterete, 8–12 cm long, 1–1.5 mm diam., innocuous to coarsely pungent, coriaceous, appressed-puberulous, typically glabrescent, striate by numerous closely parallel, fine nerves. Inflorescences 1–4-headed racemes; raceme axes 0.5–6 mm long; peduncles 4–8 mm long, white or pale yellow appressed-puberulous; heads globular, 4.5–5 mm diam., 35–40-flowered. Flowers 5-merous; sepals free, together with petals and bracteoles golden appressed-puberulous. Pods (old valves) constricted between and somewhat raised over seeds, straight, 6.5 cm long, 5–5.5 mm wide, chartaceous, appressed-puberulous. Seeds not seen.
Restricted to a small area in Rudall R. Natl Park, northern W.A. Grows in quartz gravel on hillsides and gullies in spinifex communities.
B.R.Maslin, in J.P.Jessop (ed.), Fl. Central Australia 130 (1981), treated this species as ‘A. affin. rigens’. Acacia rigens is readily distinguished by its yellow-ribbed branchlets, non-racemose inflorescences, glabrous corolla, much narrower pods and a geographic range considerably further south.
Nearest A. sibilans which has wider and seemingly much longer pods, fewer-flowered heads, white or very pale yellow, appressed-puberulous petals, more slender and commonly longer and more sinuous phyllodes as well as being geographically disjunct. The inadequacy of collections (especially fruiting material) makes it difficult to accurately assess the taxonomic status of A. auripila .
Type of accepted name
Rudall R. district, 2233’S, 12211’E, W.A., 17 Aug. 1971, P.G.Wilson 10614 ; holo: PERTH; iso: CANB, K, NY.
Representative collection
W. A.: upper Rudall R. area, B.R.Maslin 2101 (BRI, NSW, NT, PERTH).
(RSC)
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.
