Common name: Narrabarba wattle
Acacia constablei Tindale APNI* Synonyms: Racosperma constablei (Tindale) Pedley APNI*
Description: Erect to straggly, often slender or whipstick-like shrub 1–3 m high, sometimes to 5 m high in protected areas; bark smooth, mottled light to medium grey; branchlets angled to terete, with knobbly ridges, minutely greyish-hairy.
Leaves with petiole 0.2–1 cm long, hairy, usually 1 gland at base of or below basal pair of pinnae; rachis usually 1.7–5 cm long (rarely to 8.5 cm long), with knobbly-undulate ridges, hairy, jugary glands present at all or most pairs of pinnae (sometimes to 1 mm or more below pinnae and appearing more interjugary), interjugary glands rare; pinnae mostly 6–15 pairs, 0.8–3 cm long; pinnules 9–30 pairs, oblong to narrowly oblong, thick, 1.5–2.5 mm or sometimes to 4 mm long, usually 0.5–0.8 mm wide, subglabrous, ciliate and a tuft of hairs at apex.
Inflorescences in axillary or terminal racemes or sometimes panicles; peduncles usually 2–6 mm long, appressed-hairy; heads globose, 30–45-flowered, 5–7 mm diam., pale yellow.
Pods ± straight or sometimes slightly curved, ± flat, ± straight-sided but often irregularly constricted between seeds, 3–11.5 cm long, 7–10 mm wide, leathery, with minute ± appressed hairs, glabrescent; seeds longitudinal; funicle filiform.
Flowering: June–July.
Distribution and occurrence: Narrabarba area (west of Disaster Bay) and Nadgee area; rare. Grows in shrubland, often the dominant species, mostly on rhyolite and granite, on rocky ridgetops and hillslopes.
NSW subdivisions: SC
Threatened species: NSW BCA: Vulnerable; Commonwealth EPBC: Vulnerable
The indumentum is often pale yellowish to grey, the hairs on branchlets and leaf rachis often in small tufts on the knobbly ridges. Acacia constablei is similar to A. mearnsii which has several interjugary glands, more pairs of pinnae and pinnules, and a longer petiole. Named after Ernest 'Ernie' Francis Constable (1903-1986), a former botanical collector at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney.
Text by P.G. Kodela (last updated February 2009)
Taxon concept: P.G. Kodela & G.J. Harden, Flora of NSW Vol. 2 (2002)
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
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