Acacia auriculiformis A.Cunn.
ex Benth., Lond. J. Bot. 1 (1842)
Latin for 'ear-shaped'.
Synonyms
Acacia auriculaeformis Benth. [Spelling variant]
Acacia moniliformis Griseb.
Racosperma auriculiforme (A.Cunn. ex Benth.) Pedley
Description
Spreading tree to 28 m high, bole up to 12 m and 50 cm d.b.h. Bark grey or dark grey, deeply fissured
in old specimens, hard; inner bark cream; sapwood deep cream, heartwood dark brown. Branchlets angular,
glabrous. Phyllodes curved or falcate, acute or subacute, 10-16 by (1.2-)1.5-2(-3) cm, 4-8(-10) times as
long as wide, glabrous, greyish green, major veins and margins not yellow, pulvinus 4-6 mm, with
at the top a gland, swollen, c. 1 mm in diameter, with a narrow orifice; major prominent longitudinal
veins 3 or 4, at the base running together towards the basiscopic margin or in the middle and with
several crowded, somewhat anastomosing secondary veins. Spikes somewhat interrupted, 8(-10) by
0.6-0.7 cm, on glabrous peduncles, 0.5-0.8 cm, paired in the axils of the distal phyllodes. Flowers
golden yellow, fragrant, pentamerous. Calyx 0.7-1 mm, glabrous; lobes triangular, 0.2 mm. Corolla
1.7-2 mm, glabrous; lobes reflexed, oblong, c. 1 mm. Stamens c. 3 mm. Ovary densely puberulous.
Pod brown, often glaucous, flat, contorted, with undulate margins, c. 6.5 by 1-1 .5(-2.5) cm; valves
subwoody, glabrous, veins transverse, anastomosing. Seeds black, transverse, elliptic, c. 5 by 3.5 mm;
areole large and almost closed; funicle orange, 3.8-5 by 3-5.5 mm, completely encircling the seed.
Ecology
Originally growing on savannas, woodlands, swamp edges, coastal savannas,
grasslands, monsoon forests and regrowth up to 90 m altitude in Australia and
New Guinea, introduced in western Malesia where it is consequently mainly found
in plantations or secondary, open vegetation types. On sandy soils.
Uses
Wood used for wood-pulp. Poles used for house construction. Bark locally
collected for tannins. In western Malesia often used as ornamental roadside
tree.
Distribution
Introduced in many places in western Malesia, but originally from northern
Australia and New Guinea.
Note
Observed to hybridize with Acacia mangium.
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