Acacia saliciformis Tindale, Contr. New South Wales Natl Herb. 4: 22 (1966)
Bushy shrub or tree usually 2.5–7 m high; young branches pendulous. New growth reddish. Branchlets acutely angled, dark red, sometimes pruinose, glabrous. Phyllodes narrowly elliptic to lanceolate, straight to shallowly falcate, usually 5–12 cm long and 7–15 mm wide, acuminate, thin, grey-green, glabrous, with prominent midrib, obscurely penninerved; gland 1–4 cm above pulvinus, sometimes connected to midrib by a fine oblique nerve. Inflorescences racemose; raceme axes 2.5–7 cm long, glabrous; peduncles 3–9 mm long, glabrous; heads globular, 20–32-flowered, pale yellow to creamy white. Flowers 5-merous; sepals partially united. Pods stipitate, broadly linear to narrowly oblong, slightly raised along midline, to 12 cm long, 10–18 mm wide, firmly chartaceous, dark brown to blackish, lightly pruinose, glabrous. Seeds longitudinal, oblong-elliptic, 6–8 mm long, slightly shiny, black, minutely puncticulate; aril pileiform to clavate.
Occurs principally from Mt Kindarun S to Bilpin with an outlier in the Budawang Ra., N.S.W. Grows on sandstone ridges in dry sclerophyll forest.
A collection from Kulnura, a little E of the main area of occurrence, is slightly atypical in being a slender shrub 1–2 m high with phyllodes 3–7 cm long and 5–11 mm wide (e.g. E.F.Constable 7151 , NSW).
Similar to A. mabellae which has usually golden-puberulous raceme axes and peduncles, and long funicles that encircle the seeds.
Type of accepted name
1 mile [1.6 km] N of Colo Heights, N.S.W., 18 June 1960, M.D.Tindale s.n .; holo: NSW; iso: A, K n.v ., L n.v ., US n.v.
Illustrations
A.Fairley & P.Moore, Native Pl. Sydney District 129, fig. 392 (1989); T.Tame, Acacias SE Australia 134, fig. 142, pl. 142 (1992).
Representative collections
N.S.W.: Mt Yengo, 16 km S of Howes Valley, E.F.Constable 7185 (NSW, PERTH); Southern Budawang Ra., I.Olsen 2807 (NSW); 1.6 km N of Colo Heights, 28 Sept. 1959, M.D.Tindale s.n. (NSW, PERTH).
(BRM)