Acacia cretata Pedley, Contr. Queensland Herb . 4: 1 (1969)
Single-stemmed, round-topped shrub or tree to 8 m high. Bark smooth, later rough and fibrous, grey-brown. Branchlets markedly angular, flattened, stout, brownish crimson, pruinose, glabrous. Phyllodes obliquely narrowly elliptic to elliptic, narrowed abruptly into the broad pulvinus, flat, falcate, 7–14 cm long, 17–40 mm wide, with hooked apex, coriaceous, pruinose, glabrous, with 2 or 3 prominent, free main veins, the minor veins 1–3 per mm, strongly anastomosing; gland 1, basal, to 1 mm above pulvinus. Spikes 5.5–10 cm long, bright yellow. Flowers 5-merous; calyx 0.4–0.6 mm long, dissected to 1/4, glabrous; corolla 1.2–1.5 mm long, dissected to 1/2, glabrous; ovary glabrous or pubescent. Pods linear, raised over and constricted between seeds, 6–10 cm long, 3 mm wide, coriaceous, glabrous, resinous. Seeds longitudinal, oblong-elliptic, 4–6 mm long, 1.8–2 mm wide, black.
Occurs in Qld along the Great Dividing Ra. between Mara and Moranbah, common on Blackdown Tableland. Grows in eucalypt open forest, in sandy, gravelly or loamy soils, usually over sandstone. Flowers July–Sept.
Acacia cretata has previously been included with a complex of taxa under the name ' A . cunninghamii' (see note under A. concurrens ), but can be distinguished from similar species by its strongly pruinose branches, the glaucous phyllodes contracted abruptly into a short pulvinus and the glabrous flowers, fide L.Pedley, Contrib. Queensland Herb . 4: 1 (1969) and Austrobaileya 1: 164 (1978). It possibly intergrades with A. leptocarpa , e.g. Duaringa, L.Pedley 4088, BRI, fide L.Pedley, Contr. Queensland Herb. 4: 1 (1969), and A. fodinalis , fide L.Pedley, Austrobaileya 5: 318 (1999).
Type of accepted name
25 miles [40 km] NE of Capella, Qld, July 1962, R.Story & G.Yapp 182 ; holo, BRI; iso: CANB, NSW, PERTH.
Synonymy
Racosperma cretatum (Pedley) Pedley, Austrobaileya 2: 347 (1987). Type: as for accepted name.
Illustration
S.Pearson & A.Pearson, Pl. Central Queensland 26 (undated).
Representative collections
Qld: 18 miles [28.8 km] NE of Capella T/S [Township], L.Adams 1293 (CANB, NSW); 16.8 km E of Comet railway stn, N.Hall 78/60 &78/61 (NSW); 9 miles [14.4 km] E of Comet Township, M.Lazarides & R.Story 67 (CANB, NSW); Blackdown Tableland, J.G.Simmons & M.H.Simmons 2694 (NSW).
(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.
