Acacia brachystachya

Acacia brachystachya commonly known as umbrella mulga, umbrella wattle, turpentine mulga, grey mulga or false bowgada, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to Australia. It is a erect or spreading, bushy shrub or tree with grey bark, straight linear or slightly curved phyllodes, cylindrical heads of bright yellow flowers, and straight pods. It is native to all mainland Australian states except Victoria, and also occurs in the Northern Territory.

Description

Acacia brachystachya grows as an erect or spreading bushy shrub or tree high and wide and grey, smooth or fissured bark. The phyllodes are rigid, linear or slightly curved, long and wide and more or less glaucous with many closely spaced veins, and hairs pressed against the surface. The flowers are bright yellow and borne in one or two cylindrical heads long, in axils on a peduncle long. Flowering usually occurs from
April to August, depending on weather conditions, and the pods are more or less straight, slightly flattened, long, wide and sticky, containing seeds long and wide with a thread-like aril.

Taxonomy

Acacia brachystachya was first formally described in 1864 by George Bentham in his Flora Australiensis from specimens collected on the "Mutanie Ranges" in New South Wales during the Bourke and Wills expedition. The specific epithet means 'a short ear of corn', referring to the relatively short flower spikes.

Distribution and habitat

Acacia brachystachya is found in all continental Australian states except Victoria, and also in the Northern Territory. It often grows in sandy loam with Acacia aneura and on shallow, stony soils. In Western Australia it is found in the Central Ranges, Gibson Desert, Great Sandy Desert, Little Sandy Desert, Murchison and Nullarbor bioregions, in the southern half of the Northern Territory the northern part of South Australia, south-western Queensland and the western half on New South Wales.