Acacia xiphophylla E.Pritz., Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 35: 305 (1904)
Snake-wood
Often gnarled, bushy shrub or tree 3–7 m high; main branches often rather contorted and widely spreading. Branchlets glabrous or sparingly appressed-puberulous. Phyllodes ascending, elliptic or ligulate, tapering to acute or acuminate apex and long-attenuate base, straight to slightly curved, 5–12.5 cm long, 3.5–16 mm wide, rigid, glaucous, sericeous, glabrescent, with numerous very obscure, closely parallel nerves, the central nerve sometimes slightly raised. Inflorescences rudimentary 1- or 2-headed racemes with axes c. 0.2 mm long, often growing out; peduncles 7.5–15 mm long, appressed-puberulous; spikes 2.5–5.5 cm long, 5–7 mm diam., loosely flowered, light golden; receptacle appressed-hairy. Flowers mostly 5-merous; sepals 1/4–1/3 length of petals, united, often golden-puberulous. Pods pendent, linear, raised over and sometimes constricted between seeds, straight to slightly curved, 8–20 cm long, 7–18 mm wide, crustaceous-woody, irregularly reticulate coarsely, glabrous, shining. Seeds longitudinal, broadly elliptic, 6–10 mm long, peripherally crested, dull, brown; aril /funicle fleshy.
Widespread across the Pilbara from Shark Bay NE to near Roebourne and Roy Hill, with one collection from near Wiluna, north-western W.A. Grows on sometimes subsaline clay flats, stony plains and hills, in Acacia shrubland and low woodland, dominating in localised areas.
Superficially similar to the flat phyllode variant of A. intorta ; and to A. eremaea (sect. Plurinerve ). Perhaps related to A. hamersleyensis which is most readily distinguished by its more obvious phyllode nerves, denser spikes, more deeply divided, white-villous calyx and pilose pods.
Type of accepted name
25 km S of Roebourne, W.A., 24 Apr. 1901, L.Diels 2808 ; lecto: PERTH (Fragment ex B), fide B.R.Maslin, Nuytsia 4: 100 (1982).
Synonymy
Acacia clementii Maiden & Blakely (as ‘clementi’), J. Roy. Soc. W. Australia 13: 26; pl. 19, figs 1–4 (1928), non Domin (1926). Type: between Ashburton R. and Yule R., W.A., 1898, E.Clement 225 ; holo: NSW; iso: PERTH.
Illustrations
J.H.Maiden & W.F.Blakely, loc. cit. ; J.W.Turnbull (ed.), Multipurpose Austral. Trees & Shrubs 215 (1986); A.A.Mitchell & D.G.Wilcox, Arid Shrubland Pl. W. Australia 260, fig. 6 & 292- 293 (1988).
Representative collections
W.A.: just N of Billabong, North West Coastal Hwy, G.Phillips for A.M.Ashby 4828 (AD, MEL, NY, PERTH); Wandagee, Minilya R., C.A.Gardner 6165 (PERTH); c. 15 km S of Roy Hill Stn on Great Northern Hwy, B.R.Maslin 5272 (PERTH); 18.5 km W of Tom Price, B.R.Maslin 5573 (BRI, CANB, NSW, PERTH); Wiluna area, Dec. 1970, J.Morrissey (PERTH).
(RSC)
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.
