Acacia poliochroa E.Pritz., Bot. Jahrb. Syst . 35: 293 (1904)
Dense, domed or flat-topped, dwarf shrub 0.1–0.5 m high, to 1 m wide. Branchlets puberulous. Phyllodes straight to shallowly incurved, usually terete, often drying subquadrangular/triquetrous, rarely flat, 1–2.5 cm long, usually 1–2 mm wide, often subuncinate, with mucro sometimes coarsely pungent, coriaceous, appressed hairy at least when young, 4-nerved in all; midrib prominently raised on each face when flat and often excentric; gland 3–8 mm above pulvinus. Inflorescences rudimentary, 2-headed racemes with axes to 0.5 mm long; peduncles 7–20 mm long, glabrous, deflexed from base in fruit; heads globular, 4–5 mm diam., usually 16–21-flowered, light golden. Flowers 5-merous; sepals free. Pods linear, biconvex, strongly curved to once-coiled, to c. 2 cm long, 2 mm wide, thinly coriaceous-crustaceous, blackish, moderately appressed pubescent. Seeds longitudinal, oblong, 2 mm long, shiny, dark brown; aril terminal, subconical, white tinged yellow.
Occurs from Lake King E to Norseman and N to Marvel Loch, south-western W.A. Grows in sand, sand over clay, clay loam, loam over ironstone and gravelly ironstone, on plains and hillocks in undulating plains, in open heath, eucalypt woodland and shrub mallee.
Scattered throughout the range are plants with flat, narrowly oblong-oblanceolate phyllodes to 3 mm wide and 21–27-flowered heads. Some of these may represent hybrids between A. merrallii and A. poliochroa. They are most readily distinguished from A. excentrica , which they resemble, by hairy phyllodes (at least when young) and glands 3–8 mm above pulvinus.
Allied to A. quinquenervia . Morphologically and geographically, perhaps nearest A. lachnophylla which has phyllodes with the midrib only slightly raised or immersed, 20–32-flowered heads and mottled seeds.
Type of accepted name
Near Gilmores, W.A., 2 Nov. 1901, L.Diels 5269 ; iso: PERTH (Fragment ex B).
Representative collections
W.A.: 45 km N of Norseman on road to Kalgoorlie, I.B.Armitage 511 (NSW, PERTH); between Bremer Ra. and L. Johnston, B.R.Maslin 5426 (K, MEL, MO, PERTH); 3 km ESE of Marvel Loch, K.Newbey 6025 (K, PERTH).
(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.
