Acacia nova-anglica J.Williams (ms)
New England Hickory
Bushy shrub to 3 m high, or rarely a small tree to 8 m high; bark finely or deeply fissured, dark grey; branchlets angled and soon terete, dark red, glabrous, subglaucous to pruinose. Phyllodes falcate, oblanceolate to narrow-elliptic, not oblong, 5–14 cm long, 8–30 mm wide, glabrous, subglaucous, with a prominent acentral midvein, finely penniveined, apex obtuse, sometimes apiculate, base asymmetric, gland 9–30 mm above base with vein running to it, margin indented; pulvinus 4–8 mm long. Heads globose, 15–25–flowered, whitish to cream-coloured, 5–13 on an axillary racemes, or in a terminal panicle; axis 1–6 cm long; peduncles 3–10 mm long, shortly yellow appressed- hairy. Pods straight, flat, often with 1–3 deep constrictions, 5–19 cm long, 10–22 mm wide, brown, seeds longitudinal, funicle elongated, completely or almost completely encircling seed, expanded towards seed.
Occurs on the New England Tableland of N.S.W. where it extends from Bendemeer N to the Queensland border (fruiting material is needed to confirm this distribution); it is common in the Gibraltar Ra. Grows mostly in medium or low dry sclerophyll forest or woodland on sandy infertile soils, often among granite outcrops or rocky exposed hillsides; chiefly on the granite ranges. Flowers chiefly Jan–March.
Differs from A. falciformis in having more glaucous phyllodes, funicles which more than 1/2 encircle the seeds and usually paler coloured heads. The funicle character suggests affinities to A. falcata . It flowers from Dec.–March, later in the season than does A. falciformis (from the New England region) which flowers around October.
Representative collections
N.S.W.: Gibraltar Ra., T.Tame 39 and 4990 (Hunter Region Bot. Garden Herbarium).
(JW & GH)
In Fl. Australia this species is noted as the Gibraltar Ra. variant under A. falciformis . The above treatment is based on a description prepared by Gwen Harden for publication in the Fl. New South Wales, based on information supplied by John Williams.
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.
