Acacia palustris Luehm., Victorian Naturalist 13: 117 (1897)
Needlewood
Somewhat gnarled shrub or tree 2- 4 m high. Branchlets glabrous. Phyllodes vertically deflexed, straight, terete, 9- 22 cm long, 1- 1.5 mm diam., long-tapering acuminate, pungent, rigid, glabrous, with 16 closely parallel, raised nerves. Inflorescences simple, 2 per axil; peduncles 3- 6 mm long, glabrous; spikes 7- 10 mm long, 4- 5 mm diam., densely flowered. Flowers 4-merous; sepals free. Pods linear, strongly raised over and constricted between seeds, slightly curved, to 16.5 cm long, 7.5- 8 mm wide, thin-crustaceous, irregularly longitudinally striate, glabrous. Seeds longitudinal, broadly elliptic, 6.5- 7.5 mm long, dull, dark brown to black; aril minute.
Discontinuous, occurring on Pingandy Stn (Ashburton R.) and from Errabiddy Stn (near Gascoyne R.) S to Murgoo Stn (Murchison R.), north-western W.A. Usually grows on loamy alluvial plains in shrubland, often with Mulga ( Acacia aneura ).
Very distinctive on account of its vertically deflexed, terete phyllodes. Relationships uncertain.
Type of accepted name
Mt Narryer, upper Murchison R., W.A., I.Tyson 4 ; holo: MEL; iso: K, PERTH.
Representative collections
W.A.: 3 km ESE of Murgoo Stn HS, R.J.Cranfield 5230 (PERTH); Meka Stn, A.A.Mitchell 893 (K, MEL, PERTH); 20 km S of Errabiddy HS, A.A.Mitchell 1557 (PERTH); Pingandy Stn, 1972, M.Scott (PERTH).
(RSC)