Acacia maconochieana


Acacia maconochieana, also known as Mullan wattle, is a shrub or tree of the genus Acacia and the subgenus Plurinerves that is endemic to an arid area of central Australia.

Description

The shrub or tree typically grows to a height of and has longitudinally fissured, grey coloured bark and densely haired branchlets. Like most species of Acacia it has phyllodes rather than true leaves. The hairy, evergreen phyllodes have a linear shape with a length of and a width of with many fine and closely parallel nerves. It blooms in October and produces yellow flowers.

Taxonomy

The species was first formally described by the botanist Leslie Pedley in 1986 as a part of the work Acacia maconochieana, a new species from semi-arid Australia as described in the journal Austrobaileya. It was reclassified by Pedley as Racosperma maconochieanum in 2003 then returned to genus Acacia in 2006.

Distribution

It is native to an area in the Northern Territory and the Kimberley and Goldfields-Esperance regions of Western Australia and is commonly situated along the margins of lakes that are periodically flooded growing in sandy or loamy soils. The range of the plant extends from around Gregory Salt Lake in the west through to around Nongra Lake in the Tanami Desert in the east where it is usually a part of low open forest or woodland or open scrubland communities.

Aboriginal names

The Walmajarri people of the Paruku IPA in the Kimberley call this wattle Wirimangurru. Other Aboriginal names are:Jaru: 'gunanduru, wirrimangurru and Ngarinyman:' Gunadurr.