Acacia lysiphloia F.Muell., J. Proc. Linn. Soc., Bot. 3: 137 (1859)
Turpentine
Multi-stemmed, spreading, resinous, often viscid, shrub to 6 m high. Bark ‘Minni Ritchi’ type, red-brown. Branchlets angular, the ridges fawn, appressed-hairy, the interstices green, glabrous, lenticellate. Stipules triangular, 0.5–2 mm long, persistent. Phyllodes linear-obovate, oblique, flat, 1–5 cm long, 1.2–5 (–7) mm wide, with a short apical point, coriaceous, with conspicuous stomates, glabrous or appressed-hairy on nerves and margins, with 2–5 conspicuous raised longitudinal nerves (all confluent and inconspicuous just below apex), with anastomosing nerves obscure on broad phyllodes; gland 1, basal. Spikes 0.7–3.7 cm long, golden. Flowers 5-merous; calyx 0.3–0.8 mm long, dissected for 1/2 to almost to base, glabrous; corolla 0.9–1.6 mm long, dissected for 1/3–1/2, often papillate; ovary hairy. Pods slightly or variably more constricted between seeds or straight-sided, straight to strongly curved, flat, 2–10 cm long, 6–9 (–12) mm wide, thinly coriaceous to firmly chartaceous, obliquely reticulate, viscid; margins thick and yellowish. Seeds oblique, 4.2–5 mm long, black; areole closed, depressed, surrounded by a conspicuous pale halo.
Common in arid tropical Australia, chiefly in the Kimberley region, W.A., through N.T. and into northwestern Qld, between 14S–23S and 123E–144E; an outlier occurs in N.T. at Uluru NP and northern Qld N of Muttaburra. Grows in sandy or gravelly soils, often on laterite, on plains or hillsides, frequently along streams, in open mixed eucalypt and Acacia woodland, low scrub or spinifex grassland. Flowers Apr.–Sept.
The following specimens are probable A. lysiphloia x A. monticola intergrades: Sisters Plateau, c. 96 km due SE of Derby, W.A., B.R.Maslin 2671 (MEL); ‘Highland Plain’, N.T., Henry 231 (NSW). Acacia monticola is one of the species bridging sections Plurinerves and Juliflorae . Acacia lysiphloia is very closely allied to and rather doubtfully distinct from A. chisholmii which may usually be distinguished by the two raised nerves of the narrower phyllodes. These two species have affinities with A. effusa , A. gracillima , A. trachycarpa and A. affin. trachycarpa ,.
Details of ecology, utilisation, etc. of A. lysiphloia are given in L.A.J.Thomson & N.Hall, Austral. Acacias no. 24, CSIRO Division of Forestry & Forest Products (1989). Details of fire tolerance and Aboriginal use are given by P.Latz, Bushfires & Bushtucker 106 (1995).
Type of accepted name
Sturts [Sturt] Creek, [W.A./N.T.], F.Mueller 84 ; syn: K; isosyn: MEL; Gulf of Carpentaria, ad ortum fluvii Limmen et Bight R., [N.T.], F.Mueller 3 ; syn: MEL; Hookers [Hooker] Creek, [N.T.], F.Mueller 86 ; syn: MEL? n.v.
Synonymy
Racosperma lysiphloium (F.Muell.) Pedley, Austrobaileya 2: 352 (1987). Type: as for accepted name.
Illustrations
F.Mueller, Iconogr. Austral. Acacia dec. 10 [pl. 4] (1888); B.R.Maslin, in J.Jessop (ed.), Fl. Centr. Australia 125, fig 161D (1981); K.A.W.Williams, Native Pl. Queensland 3: 7 (1987); M.Simmons, Acacias Australia 2: 213 (1988); B.R.Maslin & M.W.McDonald, A key to useful Australian acacias for the seasonally dry tropics , CSIRO, 42 & 43 (1996).
Representative collections
W.A.: 13 miles [20.8 km] W of Kununurra, F.Lullfitz L6194 (CANB, NSW). N.T.: 172 km from Borroloola, Daly Waters road, S.Jacobs 1677 (BRI, CANB, K, NSW, US); Uluru NP, P.K.Latz 10675 (NT); 50.4 km W of Timber Creek, M.D.Tindale 10123, P.Munns & R.Turley (DNA, MO, NSW, PERTH). Qld: 36 km WSW of Normanton, S.Jacobs 1243 (BRI, CANB, K, MEL, NSW, TL, US, Z); 20 miles [32 km] E of Camooweal, B.Maloney 10/70 (AD, K, NSW, PERTH).
(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.
