Acacia pustula Maiden & Blakely, Proc. Roy. Soc. Queensland 38: 117; pl. 17, figs 8–12 (1927)
Tree to 15 m high; juvenile bipinnate leaves persistent until plant is at least 2 m high. Branchlets angled at extremities, dark reddish, glabrous. Phyllodes variable, linear to narrowly elliptic, 5.5–14.5 cm long, 2–14 mm wide, broad on young plants, narrow and similar to A. angusta on mature plants, thin, glabrous, 1-nerved; lateral nerves few and indistinct; gland pustular, 15–55 mm above pulvinus, often connected to midrib by a fine oblique nerve, rarely a second gland some distance above the other. Inflorescences racemose; raceme axes 1–9 cm long, glabrous; heads globular, 18–25-flowered, golden; peduncles 3–5 mm long, glabrous. Flowers 5-merous; sepals united; ovary glabrous. Pods slightly raised over seeds, to c. 12 cm long, 5–7 mm wide, thinly coriaceous, mid-brown, glabrous. Seeds longitudinal, oblong to elliptic, 5–6 mm long, slightly shiny, black; aril clavate.
Common in an area bordered by Cracow, Condamine, Kingaroy and Eidsvold with disjunct occurrences in the Carnarvon and Salvator Rosa Natl Park areas and N of Mitchell, south-eastern Qld. Grows in sand or sandy loam over sandstone, in eucalypt woodland or open forest.
L.Pedley, Austrobaileya 1: 292 (1980), lectotypified A. pustula on Bancroft 13 , collected in 1918. At herb. NSW there are two 1918 collections of no. 13 that can be regarded as type, namely, Mar. 1918 (NSW58288) and Aug. 1918 (NSW58291); there are duplicates of the latter at BRI (i.e. NSW58289 & 58290). These collections all represent the same taxon and, judging from Bancroft’s note on NSW166398, they probably all came from the one plant. An unnumbered, undated Bancroft collection, not regarded as a type even though it was collected from Eidsvold, is queried at BRI as being a hybrid between A. jucunda and A. pustula (BRI340955 & 340956).
L.Pedley, Austrobaileya 2: 353 (1987) treated A. pustula as a subspecies of Racosperma neriifolium (= A. neriifolia ); however, until the taxonomic status of the variants within A. neriifolia is clarified it seems preferable to retain this taxon as a distinct species. Specimens with narrow, linear phyllodes resemble A. angusta which is distinguished by its hairy raceme axes and peduncles, 1–3 glands with the lowermost usually 1–4 mm above the pulvinus, and free sepals. Acacia pustula appears very closely related to A. linearifolia (N.S.W.), distinguished primarily by its glands (see discussion under A. linearifolia ) and the relationship between the two species should be re-examined.
Type of accepted name
Eidsvold, Qld, Mar. and Aug. 1918, T.L.Bancroft 13 ; lecto: NSW, BRI, fide L.Pedley, Austrobaileya 1: 292 (1980), see note below; Eidsvold, Qld, Mar. 1918, T.L.Bancroft 22 ; paralecto: NSW; Brian’s Pastures, Gayndah, Qld, July 1903, S.A.Lindeman ; paralecto: NSW.
Synonymy
Racosperma neriifolium subsp. pustulum (Maiden & Blakely) Pedley, Austrobaileya 2: 353 (1987). Type: as for accepted name.
Illustrations
J.H.Maiden & W.F.Blakely, loc. cit. ; L.Pedley, Austrobaileya 1: 231, fig. 7C (1978).
Representative collections
Qld: Mt Playfair, M.M.Biddulph 154 (BRI); 8 km W of Cracow, R.W.Johnson 841 (BRI, MEL); Kingaroy, N.Michael 2977 (BRI, CANB); Chesterton Ra. Natl Park, c. 30 km N of Mungallala, Sept. 1992, M.O’Malley (BRI); foothills of Great Dividing Ra., c. 120 km NW of Injune, I.R.Telford 5841 (BRI, CANB n.v ., NSW n.v .).
(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.
