Acacia lobulata R.S.Cowan & Maslin, Nuytsia 7: 194; 193, fig. 2A–C (1990)
Chiddarcooping Wattle
Erect, open, often spindly shrub 1–2 m high. Branchlets slightly angled, tuberculate, glabrous, resinous. Phyllodes ascending, incurved, terete, 1.5–3.5 cm long, 0.7–0.8 mm diam., with strongly, excentrically curved, acute tip, dull grey-green, glabrous, with resinous, impressed nerves forming a coarse, regular reticulum with markedly raised areoles; gland to 2 mm above pulvinus. Inflorescences simple, 1 per axil, occasionally paired; peduncles 2.5–4.5 mm long, puberulous; basal bracts ovate, acute; heads globular, 3.5–4.5 mm diam., 15–17-flowered; bracteoles spathulate. Flowers 5-merous; sepals 1/3–1/2-united. Pods linear, raised over seeds, strongly curved, to 6 cm long, 3–4 mm wide, thinly chartaceous, smooth, glabrous, resinous. Seeds longitudinal, oblong, compressed, 4–5.5 mm long, dull, dark brown; aril membranous, apical.
Known only from the Chiddarcooping Hill area (c. 70 km NE of Merredin), W.A., in gritty loam and sand on gradual slopes at foot of decomposing granite breakaways, in woodland and shrubland. Gazetted a rare species in W.A.
A member of the ‘ A. flavipila group’; it is the only known species of Acacia in Australia with terete phyllodes having reticulate venation; most closely related to A. verricula , which has flat phyllodes, more flowers per head, and free sepals, but quite similar fruits and seeds.
Type of accepted name
Chiddarcooping Hill area [precise locality withheld for conservation reasons], W.A., 23 July 1989, B.R.Maslin 6385 ; holo: PERTH; iso: AD, BRI, CANB, K, MEL, NSW, NY, US, Z.
Illustration
R.S.Cowan & B.R.Maslin, loc. cit.
Representative collections
W.A.: Chiddarcooping Hill area [precise locality withheld for conservation reasons], J.Brown 59 & A.Williams (CANB, G, K, MEL, NSW, NY, PERTH) and S.D.Hopper 6396 (PERTH).
(RSC)