Acacia flabellifolia W.Fitzg., J. Western Australia Nat. Hist. Soc. 1: 11 (1904)
Spreading shrub to 0.4–1 m high. Ultimate branchlets divaricate to ascending, straight, rather short, hirsutellous to puberulous, coarsely spinose. Phyllodes dimidiate, broadest near or below middle, with adaxial margin conspicuously rounded with its proximal edge parallel to branchlet, 6–15 mm long, 4–9 mm wide, acuminate, pungent by a prominent cusp, green, glabrous or sparsely hirsutellous; midrib near abaxial margin; secondary nerves branching and running into adaxial margin. Inflorescences 1-headed rudimentary racemes with axes <0.5 mm long; peduncles 4–6 mm long, glabrous or hirsutellous, recurved in fruit; basal bracts and bracteoles as for A. scalena ; heads globular, 15–17-flowered. Flowers 5-merous; sepals 3/4–4/5-united; petals 1-nerved. Pods tightly and somewhat irregularly coiled so they cannot be straightened out, 6–12 mm long and 4–7 mm wide in contorted state, thinly coriaceous, glabrous. Seeds longitudinal, ovate, c. 3 mm long; aril lateral.
Occurs near Yandanooka and Watheroo, south-western W.A. Grows in rocky or lateritic loam on low hills in open eucalypt woodland.
A member of the ‘ A. pravifolia group’ and seemingly most closely allied to A. scalena . Acacia dilatata which occurs within the range of A. flabellifolia has similar phyllodes but is not closely related.
Type of accepted name
Arrino, W.A., Sept. 1903, W.V.Fitzgerald ; lecto: NSW, fide B.R.Maslin & R.S.Cowan, Nuytsia 9: 391 (1994); isolecto: K, NSW, PERTH.
Representative collections
W.A.: c. 4 km S of Arrino on Geraldton Hwy, B.R.Maslin 732 (AD, BRI, CANB, K, PERTH); 5.5 km N of Watheroo towards Three Springs, B.R.Maslin 3290 (PERTH).
(BRM)
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.
