Acacia cochlearis (Labill.) H.L.Wendl., Comm. Acac. Aphyll. 3, 15 (1820)
Rigid Wattle
Erect to sprawling shrub 0.5–3 m high. Branchlets ribbed, glabrous or sparsely appressed-puberulous with straight hairs. Stipules present only on young new shoots. Phyllodes sessile, patent to ascending, inequilateral basally, subulate-linear, narrowly elliptic or oblong-elliptic, straight to recurved, mostly 2–5 cm long, mostly 2–10 mm wide, pungent, thinly coriaceous to subrigid, glabrous or subglabrous, green, with 3 or 4 distant, plane to slightly raised main nerves. Inflorescences simple, 1–3 per axil; peduncles 4–12 mm long, rather stout, glabrous; heads globular, 4–5 mm diam., 30-50-flowered, deep golden. Flowers 5-merous; sepals free. Pods pendent, linear, raised over seeds, straight, to 4.5 cm long, 3–5 mm wide, coriaceous, appressed-puberulous, with longitudinal, paler midline. Seeds longitudinal, oval, 3 mm long, dull, mottled; aril subapical, helmet-shaped.
Scattered along the coast of W.A. from Lancelin to Israelite Bay and from Eyre to SE of Madura; variants with significantly narrower than normal phyllodes extend inland from Katanning to near Clyde Hill, NE of Esperance. The coastal populations grow on beach sands, sand dunes, often on calcareous substrates, in heath and scrub.
See R.S.Cowan & B.R.Maslin, Nuytsia 12: 462–465 (1999) for a discussion of relationships and variation within the species and of the relevant synonomy.
A member of the ‘ A. latipes group’ and very closely related to A. latipes subsp. latipes but differing primarily in details of phyllode texture and venation; also, in A. cochlearis the phyllodes are never glaucous. Specimens with narrow phyllodes are very similar to A. benthamii .
Type of accepted name
Novae Hollandiae ora austro-occidentalis [vicinity of Esperance, W.A., 5- 17 December 1792], J.J.Labillardiere ; holo: FI (herb. Webbianum); iso: B (herb. Willd.), BM, FI, G-DC, K, MPU, NSW, P, RO, TCD.
Synonymy
Mimosa cochlearis Labill., Nov. Holl. Pl. 2: 85, pl. 234 (1807). Type: as for accepted name.
Acacia multinervia DC., Prodr. 2: 450 (1825); Mm. Logum. pt. 8, 445 (1827). Type: Nouvelle Hollande, cte occidentale (sphalm. ‘orientale’), [near Dunsborough, W.A., Baudin Expedition]; holo: G-DC; iso G-DC, LY, PERTH (Fragment ex G-DC).
[ Acacia melanoxylon auct. non R.Br., in W.T.Aiton: cf.C.D.F.Meisner, in J.G.C.Lehmann, Pl. Preiss. 1: 18 (1844)]
Illustrations
J.J.Labillardiere, loc. cit. ; M.Simmons, Acacias Australia 197 (1981).
Representative collections
W.A.: 6.3 km W of Esperance towards Ravensthorpe, B.R.Maslin 2545 (MEL, NY, PERTH); 32.2 km S of Madura, A.A.Mitchell 36 (PERTH); Lancelin, F.G.Smith 1939 (PERTH); c. 5 km W of Esperance, shores of Pink Lake, J.Taylor & P.Ollerenshaw 1616 (PERTH); Young R., c. 20 km N of Esperance- Ravensthorpe road, P.G.Wilson 7915 (K, MEL, 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.
