Family

Fabaceae

Distribution

Widely distributed in south-central W.A. from Meekatharra to Lorna Glen Stn (NE of Wiluna), S to near Kalgoorlie and E as far as the Great Victoria Desert.

Description

Shrub or tree 1.5–6 m high, obconic, often gnarled. Branchlets glabrous. Phyllodes normally widely spreading, narrowly elliptic to linear-elliptic, shallowly to strongly falcate, 6–12 (–14)cm long, 2–5 mm wide, acute with a straight to hooked tip, thinly coriaceous, ±shiny, glabrous, with numerous closely parallel nerves; central nerve the most evident; marginal normally red- or brown-resinous, becoming yellow or light brown and not resinous with age. Inflorescences simple; peduncles (2–)4–8(–10), mm long, normally glabrous to sparsely appressed hariy; heads broadly ellipsoid, obloid or cylindrical, 8–20 mm long, 4–6 mm diam., golden. Flowers 5-merous, resinous; sepals united to 1/3. Pods narrowly oblong, flat but often appearing quadrangular by development of an obvious marginal flange perpendicular to face, to 14 cm long, 6–10 (–13) mm wide, ±woody. Seeds longitudinal, broadly elliptic, mostly 6–8 mm long, dull, dark brown; aril terminal, turbinate.

Habitat

Grows commonly on granitic and lateritic hills and outcrops, in open shrubland, especially with members of the ‘Acacia aneura group’.

Specimens

W.A.: Mt Singleton SW of Paynes Find, W.E.Blackall 13 (PERTH); Great Victoria Desert, M.I.H.Brooker 8573 (PERTH); 48 km from Paynes Find towards Wubin, B.R.Maslin 3555 (PERTH); Cobra Stn, 78 km N of Landor HS on track to Mount Augustus Stn, B.R.Maslin 5195 (PERTH); 20 km NE of Sinclair Soak, c. 75 km NE of Norseman, K.Newbey 7009 (PERTH).

Notes

There is very considerable variation in the shape and dimensions of the phyllodes but they are never pendulous. The red or brown margins so typical of the species are not always obvious, sometimes appearing on the young phyllodes but not on the older ones.

In a study of aboriginal uses of plants in the Leonora area of W.A., A.Parker, Austral. Instit. Aboriginal Stud. Newsletter 41 (1980), records the name ‘marnanpa’ for this species, and the facts that bardie grubs are found in roots and the galls are edible.

Related to A. demissa, A. petricola and A. umbraculiformis in W.A.; also similar in some respects to A. tarculensis in S.A. Specimens cited by B.R.Maslin, Fl. Australia 11B: 309 (2001), and now A. umbraculiformis (i.e. W.E.Blackall 13, B.R.Maslin 3555 and 5195) and A. collegialis (i.e. K.Newbey 7009). Further study of variation within the W.A. populations of A. quadrimarginea is needed.

FOA Reference

Data derived from Flora of Australia Volumes 11A (2001), 11B (2001) and 12 (1998), products of ABRS, ©Commonwealth of Australia

Author

R.S.Cowan, B.R.Maslin

Minor edits by B.R.Maslin & J.Reid