''Acacia caroleae'', also known as Carole's wattle or narrow leaf currawong,
is a shrub belonging to the genus ''
Acacia
''Acacia'', commonly known as the wattles or acacias, is a large genus of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa and Australasia. The genus na ...
'' and the subgenus ''Juliflorae'' that is native to north eastern
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
.
Description
The shrub or tree typically grows to a maximum height of and has many branches that grow more or less parallel to the main stem. It has dark grey coloured bark that is corrugated and longitudinally fissured. The
glabrous and angular branchlets are a pinkish to dull purplish red colour and can be covered in granules and often are resinous. Like most species of ''Acacia'' it has
phyllode
Phyllodes are modified petioles or leaf stems, which are leaf-like in appearance and function. In some plants, these become flattened and widened, while the leaf itself becomes reduced or vanishes altogether. Thus the phyllode comes to serve the ...
s rather than true leaves. The evergreen, coriaceous, scurfy and glabrous phyllodes are flat and have a linear shape that is straight to shallowly incurved. The narrow blue-grey-green coloured phyllodes have a length of and a width of and have an inconspicuous, parallel midvein. It blooms between August producing golden flowers.
The racemose
inflorescences produce flower-spikes with a length of bearing golden flowers. Following flowering wrinkled and glabrous
seed pods form with a linear that are raised over the seeds and have a length of raised over seeds with longitudinally arranged seeds inside. The dark brown to blackish coloured seeds have an oblong-elliptic shape and a length of that have a slightly paler pleurogram.
Taxonomy
The species was first formally described by the botanist
Leslie Pedley in 1978 as part of the work ''A revision of Acacia Mill. in Queensland'' as published in the journal ''
Austrobaileya''. It was reclassified by Pedley in 1987 as ''Racosperma caroleae'' then transferred back to genus ''Acacia'' in 2001. the only other synonym is ''Acacia doratoxylon'' var. ''angustifolia''.
It is closely related to ''
Acacia doratoxylon
''Acacia doratoxylon'', commonly known as currawang, lancewood, spearwood or coast myall, is a shrub or tree belonging to the genus ''Acacia'' and the subgenus ''Juliflorae'' that is native to eastern and south eastern Australia.
Description
...
'' and also related to ''
Acacia granitica'' and ''
Acacia burrowii
''Acacia burrowii'', commonly known as Burrow's wattle, is a tree belonging to the genus ''Acacia'' and the subgenus ''Juliflorae'' that is native to eastern Australia.
Description
The tree only has single stem typically grows to a height of les ...
''.
[
]
Distribution
It is endemic to the inland parts of south-eastern Queensland and north-eastern parts of New South Wales from around Moura in the north and Gilgandra in the south where it is found on hills and plains growing in sandy and alluvial soils. It is commonly found in disturbed area and as a part of open '' Eucalyptus'' woodland or forest communities that are often dominated by species of ''Callitris
''Callitris'' is a genus of coniferous trees in the Cupressaceae (cypress family). There are 16 recognized species in the genus, of which 13 are native to Australia and the other three (''C. neocaledonica, C. sulcata'' and ''C. p ...
''.[
]
Cultivation
It is commercially available for cultivation in seed form and germination can be enhance by smoke treatment, it is noted as being a cold and drought hardy species.[
]
See also
* List of ''Acacia'' species
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q15289412
caroleae
Flora of Queensland
Flora of New South Wales
Taxa named by Leslie Pedley
Plants described in 1978