Acacia pendula A.Cunn. & G.Don
| Family Fabaceae
Subfamily Mimosoideae
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Common name: weeping myall, boree
Acacia pendula A.Cunn. & G.Don APNI* Synonyms: Racosperma pendulum (A.Cunn. ex G.Don) Pedley APNI*
Description: Erect or spreading tree 5–13 m high; bark hard, fissured, grey; branches pendent; branchlets angled or flattened, finely hairy with short appressed hairs, glabrescent with age.
Phyllodes narrowly elliptic to very narrowly elliptic or sometimes narrowly oblong-elliptic, straight or curved, 4–14 cm long, 3–10 mm wide, ± glaucous, finely appressed-hairy, glabrescent, with numerous longitudinal indistinct veins (1–3 longitudinal veins often subprominent), apex subacute with mucro; 1 gland near base; pulvinus < 2 mm long.
Inflorescences usually 2–5 on an axillary axis 3–15 mm long; peduncles 1.5–8 mm long, appressed-hairy; heads globose, 10–20-flowered, 3–7 mm diam., bright yellow.
Pods straight to strongly curved, ± flat, irregularly slightly constricted between seeds, 3–9 cm long, 10–20 mm wide, firmly papery to thinly leathery, transversly reticulately veined, minutely appressed-hairy, ± pruinose, margins narrowly winged; seeds transverse; funicle expanded towards seed.
Flowering: mainly summer and autumn.
Distribution and occurrence: widespread in inland areas, west from the upper Hunter Valley; dubiously recorded from Bathurst district where it is likely to be from an old planting. The Hunter population (east to Warkwork, extending northwest to Muswellbrook and to the west of Muswellbrook at Wybong) is disjunct and occurs at the eastern distributional limit of the species range. Grows on major river floodplains, sometimes the dominant species, in heavy clay soils.
NSW subdivisions: ?NC, ?CT, NWS, CWS, SWS, NWP, SWP, NFWP, SFWP
Other Australian states: Qld Vic.
The name refers to the pendulous habit of the species, and this feature readily distinguishes it in the field. Specimens may be confused with Acacia homalophylla and A. melvillei which differ in the pod and seed characters and in the phyllodes often being ± glabrous. The population of A. pendula in the Hunter catchment is listed as an Endangered Population in Part 2 of Schedule 1 of the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act; see also its listing as part of the endangered ecological community, the Hunter Valley Weeping Myall Woodland of the Sydney Basin bioregion.
Text by P.G. Kodela
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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