Acacia prominens


Acacia prominens is a shrub or tree in the genus Acacia native to New South Wales, Australia.

Description

Acacia prominens usually grows to a height of, sometimes to a height of. It has glabrous branchlets that are angled at the extremeties and has smooth grey coloured bark. Like most species of Acacia it has phyllodes rather than true leaves. The grey-green to grey-blue, glabrous to sparsely hairy phyllodes have a narrowly elliptic to narrowly oblong-elliptic shape and are more or less straight. The phyllodes are in length and wide with a prominent midvein. It blooms between July and September producing inflorescences in groups of 5 to 25 in an axillary raceme with spherical flower-heads that have a diameter of containing 8 to 15 lemon yellow to pale yellow coloured flowers.

Taxonomy

The species was first formally described by the botanist Allan Cunningham in 1832 as part of George Dons work A General History of Dichlamydeous Plants. It was reclassified as Racosperma prominens by Leslie Pedley in 2003 then transferred back to genus Acacia in 2006.
The species epithet refers to the prominent exerted gland on the margin of the phyllode, about above the pulvinus. It is most closely related to A. kettlewelliae and A. covenyi.

Distribution

It is endemic to south eastern Australia in New South Wales and also found in Victoria. In New South Wales it is found from around the Hunter Valley in the north west to the Gosford and Sydney areas in the south east. It is often situated in damp and sheltered areas growing in loamy and clay soils along the margins of rainforest or as a part of wet sclerophyll forest communities. It is naturalised to parts of central Victoria including the goldfields, greater Grampians, Gippsland Plain and northern inland slopes.

Alkaloids

It contains the psychoactive alkaloids phenethylamine and β-methylphenethylamine.