Acacia gonophylla Benth., Linnaea 26: 613 (1855)
Shrub usually 0.4–1 m high. Branchlets ribbed, glabrous. Stipules caducous. Phyllodes often subdistant, ascending to erect, usually shallowly incurved, acutely pentagonous in section by 5 prominently raised nerves (sulcate inbetween), if flat (mainly juvenile plants) the 2 adaxial nerves forming a broad upper margin, 2–4.5 cm long, usually 1–1.5 mm wide, epulvinate, with mucro often coarsely pungent, glabrous; gland 3–7 mm above base. Inflorescences 1–3-headed racemes; raceme axes1–5 mm long, glabrous; peduncles 4–8 mm long, glabrous; heads globular, 4.5–5 mm diam., 12–21-flowered, cream to pale yellow. Flowers 5-merous; sepals free. Pods linear, rounded over seeds, shallowly constricted or not between seeds, to 8 cm long, 3–4 mm wide, thinly coriaceous, dark red-brown, glabrous. Seeds longitudinal, oblong to elliptic, 3–4 mm long, shiny, black; aril thick.
Occurs from near Stirling Ra. E to Israelite Bay, south-western W.A. Grows in sand, lateritic gravel over white sand, quartzite granite-clay, in heath, mallee scrub and eucalypt woodland, on flat plains.
Wind-pruned plants in Fitzgerald R. Natl Park are 0.15–0.3 m high with phyllodes to 3 mm wide.
G.Bentham in Fl. Austral . 2: 340 (1864) referred to depauperate specimens from ‘Kojonerup range’ and ‘Phillips range’. I have not seen either collection but Bentham’s description of the stipules in the former suggests that it is A. pachyphylla (syn. A. gonophylla var. crassifolia ).
F.J.H. von Mueller’s A. gonophylla illustrations in Iconogr. Austral. Acacia dec. 2 [pl. 9] (1887) are unusual. The flowering branch shows dimorphic foliage characteristic of A. pachyphylla ; the inflorescences are of A. gonophylla. The pods are A. gonophylla but persistent stipules are anomalous.
Close to A. pachyphylla . Phyllodes superficially similar to A. dura which has thick, compressed, 6-nerved phyllodes with a distinct pulvinus, smaller flower-heads in axillary pairs and a clavate aril on the seeds. Also reminiscent of A. mutabilis subsp. angustifolia which has distinctly pulvinate phyllodes, golden flower-heads and slightly narrower, black pods; A. longispinea also has pentagonal phyllodes which are much longer.
Type of accepted name
Swan R. to Cape Riche, W.A., J.Drummond 5: 4; holo: K; iso: BM, CGE, FI, G, MEL, NSW (dated 1849), OXF, P, PERTH.
Illustrations
F. von Mueller, Iconogr. Austral. Acacia dec. 2 [pl. 9] (1887), see note below; M.Simmons, Acacias Australia 51 (1981).
Representative collections
W.A.: 18.5 km W of Scaddan, B.R.Maslin 2525 (CANB, K, PERTH); 16 km W of Israelite Bay Telegraph Stn, R.A.Saffrey 1344 (AD, NY, 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.
