Acacia sericocarpa W.Fitzg., J. Western Australia Nat. Hist. Soc . 2 (1): 9 (1904)
Often rounded, rather dense shrub 0.4–2 m high. Branchlets minutely woolly-tomentulose with crisped hairs; indumentum especially evident on new shoots. Phyllodes often patent and slightly undulate, commonly slightly asymmetric, ovate, elliptic or obovate, 1–2.5 cm long, 5–12 mm wide, l:w = 1–4, acute to obtuse, sometimes obliquely truncate, with slightly excentric mucro, coriaceous, green, sometimes subglaucous, minutely woolly-tomentulose when young, glabrous or subglabrous at maturity, 1-nerved per face, sometimes indistinctly and imperfectly 2-nerved; lateral nerves absent or very obscure; gland near or above middle of phyllode, sometimes slightly raised above margin, rarely few phyllodes with 2 glands. Inflorescences simple, mostly 2 per axil; peduncles 3–12 mm long, glabrous; heads globular, 4–5 mm diam., 15–24-flowered, mid-golden. Flowers 5-merous; sepals free. Pods twisted to spirally coiled, terete, to c. 1 cm long (unexpanded), 3 mm wide, thinly crustaceous, woolly-tomentose, rarely glabrous. Seeds longitudinal, elliptic, 2–2.5 mm long, shiny, brown; aril galeiform, bright orange.
Occurs in W.A. from Wyalkatchem S to near Beverley and Corrigin, E to Queen Victoria Rock (45 km due SSW of Coolgardie); one flowering collection from between Wubin and Paynes Find, c. 150 km of Wyalkatchem. Grows in clayey sand, sandy clay loam and loam, in open eucalypt woodland, mallee woodland and Casuarina / Melaleuca uncinata shrubland with scattered Eucalyptus longicornis .
Regarded by A.J.Ewart et al ., Proc. Roy. Soc. Victoria 22: 7 (1909), as conspecific with the closely allied A. merrallii which has glabrous to subglabrous pods and thicker phyllodes with gland not raised and nearer the pulvinus. Additionally, the branchlet hairs on A. sericocarpa are clearly crisped (normally straight to slightly curved on A. merrallii ) and the transition from the densely tomentulose new shoots to glabrous mature foliage is more abrupt in A. sericocarpa than in A. merrallii . Also related to A. ligustrina which has straight, appressed to subappressed branchlet hairs and generally more elongate phyllodes with often more numerous glands.
Type of accepted name
Cunderdin, Nov. 1903, W.V.Fitzgerald s.n .; lecto: PERTH00771589, right-hand fruiting specimen on sheet, fide B.R.Maslin & R.S.Cowan, Nuytsia 9: 392 (1994); isolecto: NSW; Cunderdin, Aug. 1903, W.V.Fitzgerald s.n. ; paralecto: NSW, PERTH00771589 (left-hand flowering specimen) & 00771562.
Synonymy
Acacia merrallii var. tamminensis E.Pritz., Bot. Jahrb. Syst . 35: 299 (1904). Type: Tammin, W.A., 24 Oct. 1901, L.Diels 5013 ; iso: PERTH (Fragment ex B).
Representative collections
W.A.: 210 m.p. between Wubin and Paynes Find, J.S.Beard 2595 (PERTH); Wyalkatchem, C.A.Gardner 173 (PERTH); 29 km NW of Kulin towards Corrigin, B.R.Maslin 4373 (PERTH); 3.5 km N of Queen Victoria Rock on the road to Coolgardie, B.R.Maslin 5407 (BRI, K, MEL, MO, NSW, 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.
