Acacia richardsii Maslin, Nuytsia 4: 373; 374, fig. 3, 375, fig. 4 & 379, fig. 6 (1983)
Bushy, rounded to obconic, glabrous shrub 3–4 m high. Branchlets resin-ribbed, angled towards apices. Phyllodes slightly asymmetric, narrowly elliptic to oblong-elliptic or oblanceolate, 2–4 cm long, 4.5–8.5 mm wide, obtuse, thin, subglaucous, variably resinous with resin drying meally white over nerves, mostly 2-nerved per face, with minor nerves openly longitudinally anastomosing; glands 2–5, not prominent. Inflorescences simple, 1 or 2 per axil; peduncles 5–15 mm long; spikes 2–3 cm long, 2–4 mm wide, golden. Flowers 5-merous; sepals free, linear-spathulate. Pods narrowly oblong to linear, narrowed at base, to 8 cm long, 5–6 mm wide, woody, red-brown, obliquely longitudinally nerved, resinous, dehiscing elastically from apex; margins narrowly winged and rendering pod quadrangular in section especially when young, the wing 2–3 mm wide. Seeds oblique, oblong, c. 4.5 mm long, somewhat shiny, greyish brown; funicle/aril narrowly turbinate.
Restricted to a small area from near Kununurra in W.A. to the Keep R. Natl Park in N.T. where it is apparently restricted to rocky sandstone areas.
Related to A. tenuispica and its allies but usually distinguished by its rather small, mostly 2-nerved, reticulately nerved phyllodes (however, note Prince Regent R. variant under A. tenuispica ). See also A. kimberleyensis and A. gonocarpa.
Type of accepted name
Kelly’s Knob Lookout, Kununurra, W.A., 14 Aug. 1981, C.Done 492 ; holo: PERTH; iso: DNA.
Illustrations
B.R.Maslin, op. cit. 374, fig. 3 & 375, fig. 4; M.Simmons, Acacias Australia 2: 233 (1988).
Representative collections
W.A.: headwaters of Packsaddle Ck, Northern Carr Boyd Ra., T.G.Hartley 14389 & 14403 (CANB, PERTH); Hidden Valley, Kununurra, B.R.Maslin 5154 (PERTH). N.T.: Keep R. Natl Park, A.S.Mitchell 314 (DNA).
(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.
