Common name: Dorothy's wattle
Acacia dorothea Maiden APNI* Synonyms: Racosperma dorothea (Maiden) Pedley APNI*
Description: Erect or spreading shrub usually 0.3–4 m high, singled-stemmed or sometimes with mallee habit, suckers freely; bark smooth, grey or grey-brown; branchlets angled towards apices, sparsely to densely appressed-hairy, indumentum on new growth/shoots yellowish- or rusty-silky, aging ± silvery white.
Phyllodes ± oblanceolate to narrowly elliptic, ± straight to slightly curved, 4–8 cm long (sometimes to 9.5 cm long), 5–20 mm wide, finely appressed-hairy, sometimes glabrescent with age, grey-green, midvein and marginal veins prominent, lateral veins ± obscure, apex acute with an oblique or hooked mucro; 1 ± prominent gland 10–40 mm above base and often at slightly indented margin, sometimes absent from some phyllodes; pulvinus 2–4 mm long.
Inflorescences 3–8 in an axillary raceme; axis 1–5 cm long; peduncles 2–3 mm long, appressed white-hairy; heads ± ovoid to short-cylindric, 0.5–0.8 cm long, 12–30-flowered, 5–10 mm long, bright or deep yellow.
Pods straight to slightly curved, ± flat, ± straight-sided to slightly or irregularly more deeply constricted between seeds, 3–6 cm long, 5–8 mm wide, thinly leathery, densely ± silky hairy with silvery white hairs; seeds longitudinal; funicle expanded towards seed.
Flowering: August–October.
Distribution and occurrence: from Newnes district to near Robertson. Grows in dry sclerophyll forest, woodland or scrub, in sandy or clayey soils, on sandstone and granite, on plateaus, ridge tops and in steep gullies.
NSW subdivisions: CT
Related to Acacia barringtonensis which has sparse appressed white hairs on the phyllodes and globular flower heads. Maiden named the species after his daughter Dorothy.
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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