Acacia homaloclada

Acacia homaloclada, also commonly known as Hitchinbrook wattle, is a shrub of the genus Acacia and the subgenus Plurinerves that is endemic to north eastern Australia. It is listed as vulnerable according to the 1992 Nature Conservation Act.

Description

The glabrous shrub typically grows to a height of up to and has a spindly habit. It has branchlets that are flattened towards the extremities with pink coloured new shoots. Like most species of Acacia it has phyllodes rather than true leaves. The thin and evergreen phyllodes have a lanceolate to narrowly elliptic shape with a length of and a width of and have three prominent, longitudinal main nerves with few minor nerves. It blooms between November and December producing yellow coloured flowers.

Taxonomy

The species was first formally described by the botanist Ferdinand von Mueller in 1878 as a part of the work Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae. It was reclassified as Racosperma homalocladum by Leslie Pedley in 1987 then transferred back to genus Acacia in 2001.

Distribution

The shrub has a limited range in north Queensland from around Ingham including Hinchinbrook Island where it is not common. It is usually found along watercourses as a part of open Eucalypt woodland communities growing in sandy soils.

Conservation status

Acacia homaloclada is listed as "vulnerable" under the Queensland Nature Conservation Act 1992.