Acacia polifolia Pedley, Austrobaileya 1: 294 (1980)
Shrub or tree to 5 m high. Branchlets moderately to densely appressed-puberulous with straight, silvery white hairs. New shoots light golden appressed-puberulous. Phyllodes narrowly elliptic, oblanceolate or narrowly oblong to linear, 4–10 cm long, 3–8 mm wide, acute or obtuse-mucronate, thin, moderately to densely appressed-puberulous with silvery white hairs, 1-nerved per face; lateral nerves obscure; gland not prominent, 1–2.5 cm above pulvinus. Inflorescences racemose; raceme axes 2–6 cm long, appressed-puberulous with predominantly light golden hairs; heads globular, 15–20-flowered, bright lemon yellow to golden; peduncles 2–5 mm long, appressed-puberulous with silvery white to light golden hairs. Flowers 5-merous; sepals c. 2/3-united; ovary glabrous. Pods to 8 cm long, 8–10 mm wide, firmly chartaceous to thinly coriaceous, pruinose, glabrous, dehiscing unilaterally. Seeds longitudinal, oblong-elliptic to slightly ovate, 4–5 mm long, slightly shiny, black; aril clavate.
Confined to the Great Divide from the Jericho- Tambo area E to Mt Morgan and near Biloela, Qld. Normally grows in shallow sand on sandstone, in Eucalyptus or Angophora forest or woodland.
The concept of A. polifolia is here expanded to include specimens from Blackdown Tableland, Mt Morgan and Callide Valley which L.Pedley, Austrobaileya 1: 284 (1980), included within A. pubicosta . The Blackdown Tableland and Mt Morgan specimens have acute, especially narrow, elongate phyllodes (5–10 cm long, 3–5 mm wide, l:w = 12–26) and thus may superficially resemble A. pubicosta ; the Callide Valley flowering specimen (phyllodes 7–8 cm long, 7 mm wide, l:w = 10–11) is close to Pedley’s original concept of A. polifolia . As currently defined, A. pubicosta differs by having silvery white, appressed pubescence on new shoots, raceme axes and commonly peduncles, phyllodes 2–3 mm wide and glabrous or more commonly appressed-puberulous on midribs, a gland 5–10 mm above pulvinus, white or cream-coloured flower-heads and glabrous, blackish pods.
Acacia polifolia is readily distinguished from A. barringtonensis and its allies from N.S.W. by the golden coloured indumentum as noted above. It is sometimes sympatric with A. decora which commonly has a similar indumentum on its raceme axes and peduncles; in the field these two species may be confused with A. deuteroneura .
Type of accepted name
14 km SW of Alpha Stn, Qld, 4 June 1964, L.G.Adams 1006 ; holo: BRI; iso: CANB, K n.v ., fide L.Pedley, Austrobaileya 1: 294 (1980)
Synonymy
Racosperma polifolium (Pedley) Pedley, Austrobaileya 2: 354 (1987). Type: as for accepted name.
Representative collections
Qld: Jericho, June 1913, J.L.Boorman (NSW, PERTH); Blackdown Tableland, c. 32 km SE of Blackwater, R.J.Henderson, L.Durrington & P.Sharpe 989 (BRI); Callide Open Cut, c. 25 km NE of Biloela, L.A.S.Johnson 7125 & B.G.Briggs (BRI, NSW); Upper Maranoa R., c. 100 km NW of Injune, I.R.Telford 5842 (BRI).
(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.
