Acacia seclusa M. W. McDonald (ms)
Saw Ranges Wattle
Small tree to 5 (–6) m tall, canopy spreading and silvery, bluish in colour. Bark hard, grey, shallowly rimose. New shoots sericeous, grey. Branchlets sericeous. Phyllodes narrowly-elliptic to narrowly-dimidiate, straight, 10–15 cm long, 1–2.5 cm wide, coriaceous, sericeous, grey-green; longitudinal nerves numerous and close together (6–8 per mm), moderately longitudinally anastomosing, with 3 main longitudinal nerves slightly more prominent than the others; pulvinus 5–7 mm long, sericeous. Inflorescences simple (1–2 per axil) or racemose, raceme axes 0.2–5 cm long and sericeous; peduncles 2–5 mm long, pubescent; spikes 2–5 cm long, flowers densely arranged, yellow to pale golden; receptacles, glabrous. Flowers 5-merous; calyx deeply dissected, densely pubescent; ovary sericeous. Pods narrowly oblong, sometimes slightly constricted between the seeds, sub-terete to slightly flattened, straight to slightly curved, 4–7 cm long, 6–8 mm wide, woody, sericeous, longitudinally wrinkled or grooved. Seeds oblique, elliptic to irregularly elliptic, 4 mm long, 3 mm wide, glossy, black; funicle/aril twice-folded, cream.
Known only from Dillon Springs in the Saw Ranges, Kimberley region, W.A., where it grows near a spring in a steep rocky gully. Flowers in August.
Acacia seclusa is a member of the ‘ A. tumida group’ where it appears to be morphologically intermediate between A. tumida and A. retinervis . It is, however, distinguished in having straight, narrowly-elliptic to narrowly-dimidiate, sericeous phyllodes, simple or relatively short racemose inflorescences (racemes to 5 cm long) and densely sericeous pods. It is also characterized by its strictly riparian habitat and in having a silvery, bluish appearance to its crown (due to the sericeous phyllodes). Acacia tumida also occurs at Dillon Springs but is easily recognized, in addition to the characters already given, by its falcate, glabrous, finely striate (not reticulate) phyllodes and its non-silvery crowns. A putative hybrid between these two species occurs at this site.
Synonymy
A. tumida var . pubescens Maiden in A.J.Ewart & O.B.Davies, Fl. N. Terr . 344 (1917). Type: Dillen's Springs [Dillon Springs], East Kimberley, W.A., Oct. 1906, W.V.Fitzgerald s.n .; holo: NSW.
Representative collections
W.A.: Dillen Springs, c. 50 km W of Kununurra, G.P.Guymer 526 (NE, NSW); Dillon Springs, Saw Ranges, 11.2 km S along Great Northern Highway from T/O to Halls Creek on Wyndham-Kununurra Road, ca 55 km due south-west of Kununurra, Western Australia, M.W.McDonald 2440 (BRI, CANB, DNA, K, PERTH).
(MWM & BRM)
This species was not included in the Fl. Australia treatment of Acacia .
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.
