Acacia dawsonii
Acacia dawsonii commonly known as poverty wattle, Dawson's wattle, or mitta wattle, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to south-eastern, continental Australia. It is an erect or spreading shrub with very narrowly elliptic to linear phyllodes, spherical heads of light golden yellow flowers and linear, thinly leathery pods.
Description
Acacia dawsonii is an erect or spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of, with branchlets that are hairy between resinous ridges. The evergreen phyllodes are straight to slightly curved, very narrowly elliptic to linear and long and with up to ten longitudinal veins of which one or two are usually more prominent that the others. The flowers are borne in racemes in spherical heads in leaf axils on a peduncle long. Each head is in diameter with usually 4 to 8 light golden yellow flowers. Flowering occurs from September to October, and the fruit is a linear pod up to long, wide, straight or with a slight curve and thinly leathery to firmly papery and smooth.
Taxonomy and naming
Acacia dawsonii was first formally described in 1897 by Richard Baker and the description was published in Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales from specimens collected near Rylstone. The specific epithet is named in honour of Mr. J Dawson, L.S., who first pointed the plant out to Baker.
Distribution and habitat
Poverty wattle grows in grassland and eucalypt woodland in rocky, clay or sandy soils to an area down the east coast from as far north as Stanthorpe in south east Queensland, through the slopes and tablelands of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, to Mitta Mitta in north east Victoria.
Use in horticulture
This species is not widely cultivated but is quite hardy and suitable for a wide range of climates.