Acacia clelandii

Acacia clelandii, also known as umbrella mulga, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to south-western continental Australia. It is a spreading shrub with hairy branchlets, more or less terete, straight or slightly curved phyllodes, spikes of yellow flowers, and oblong, tough, flexible pods.

Description

Acacia clelandii is a spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of up to. Its branchlets are covered in white hairs pressed against the surface between yellowish ribs, the new growth with scattered red glandular hairs. It phyllodes are more or less terete, straight or slightly curved, mostly | long and wide with hairs pressed against the surface between longitudinal veins. The flowers are borne in spikes long in axils, on a peduncle long. Flowering has been recorded from May to July and in September and October, and the pods are stalkless, oblong, flat, straight, long and wide, brown, tough, but flexible.
The seeds are oblong, long with a small aril.

Taxonomy

Acacia clelandii was first formally described by Leslie Pedley in the Flora of Australia from specimens collected on the Eyre Peninsula in 1972. The specific epithet honours the biologist Sir John Burton Cleland.

Distribution and habitat

Umbrella mulga is mainly found on dunes or rocky hills in South Australia, especially in the Gawler Range and the far north of the state, where the range extends into adjoining parts of Western Australia. It has a limited and scattered distribution in the Pilbara, Gascoyne and Murchison bioregions of Western Australia.