CSIRO ScienceImage 1563 Acacia colei var ileocarpa Seed Pod

''Acacia colei'' is a perennial

bush Bush commonly refers to: * Shrub, a small or medium woody plant Bush, Bushes, or the bush may also refer to: People * Bush (surname), including any of several people with that name **Bush family, a prominent American family that includes: *** ...

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

native to northern

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 ...

and southern

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

. A common name for it is Cole's wattle. ''Acacia colei'' blooms from May through September and the flowers are bright yellow. The

Walmajarri The Walmadjari (Walmajarri) people, also known as Tjiwaling and Wanaseka, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Name The two names reflect different Walmadjari preferences. Their western bands accept ...

people in the

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia * Kimberley (Western Australia) ** Roman Catholic Diocese of Kimberley * Kimberley Warm Springs, Tasmania * Kimberley, Tasmania a small town * County of Kimberley, a ...

call this wattle, Parta.

Description

The shrub typically grows to a height of or is found sometimes as a tree up heights of around usually with a spreading habit. It has sericeous new shoots with pale yellow-brown hairs that age to have a silvery colour. The acutely angled branchlets are silvery-sericeous. The silvery-green to grey-green

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 usually have an obliquely narrowly elliptic shape that is more or less straight but often shallowly recurved at the

apice Apice is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Benevento in the Italian region Campania, located about 70 km northeast of Naples and about 13 km east of Benevento. Apice borders the following municipalities: Ariano Irpino, Bon ...

. The phyllodes are around in length and have a width of and have a knob shaped

mucro A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

. The rudimentary

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

s occur in pairs in the

raceme A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the s ...

s and have a axes length of . The golden flower spikes are in length with hairy petals. The

seed pod This page provides a glossary of plant morphology. Botanists and other biologists who study plant morphology use a number of different terms to classify and identify plant organs and parts that can be observed using no more than a handheld magnify ...

s that form later are openly and strongly curved or tightly and irregularly coiled or twisted with twisted dehisced valves. The glabrous pods have a width of and are thinly coriaceous to crustaceous. The glossy brown to black coloured seeds within the pods have an oblong shape and are in length with a bright yellow

aril An aril (pronounced ), also called an arillus, is a specialized outgrowth from a seed that partly or completely covers the seed. An arillode or false aril is sometimes distinguished: whereas an aril grows from the attachment point of the see ...

Taxonomy

The species was first formally described by the botanists

Bruce Maslin Bruce Roger Maslin (born 3 May 1946) is an Australian botanist, known for his work on ''Acacia'' taxonomy. Born in Bridgetown, Western Australia, he obtained an honours degree in botany from the University of Western Australia in 1967, then to ...

and L.A.J.Thomson in 1992 in the work ''Re-appraisal of the taxonomy of Acacia holosericea, including the description of a new species, A. colei, and the reinstatement of A. neurocarpa'' published in the journal ''Australian Systematic Botany''. It was reclassified as ''Racosperma colei'' by

Leslie Pedley Leslie Pedley (19 May 1930 – 27 November 2018)IPNILeslie Pedley/ref> was an Australian botanist who specialised in the genus ''Acacia''. He is notable for bringing into use the generic name ''Racosperma'', creating a split in the genus, which r ...

in 2003 then returned to genus ''Acacia'' in 2006. The species is commonly confused with ''

Acacia holosericea ''Acacia holosericea'' is a shrub native to tropical and wikt:inland, inland northern Australia. It is commonly known as soapbush wattle, soapbush, strap wattle, candelabra wattle, silver wattle and silky wattle. Description The shrub has a spr ...

'' which it closely resembles. There are two varieties: * ''Acacia colei'' Maslin & L. A. J. Thomson var. ''colei'', known as Cole's wattle. * ''Acacia colei'' var. ''ileocarpa'' M. W. McDonald & Maslin, known as curly-podded Cole’s wattle.

Distribution

The plant is found throughout northern Australia between latitudes of 16°S and 22°S from the

Pilbara The Pilbara () is a large, dry, thinly populated region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its Aboriginal peoples; its ancient landscapes; the red earth; and its vast mineral deposits, in particular iron ore. It is also a glo ...

and

regions of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

in the west extending east through the

Tanami Desert The Tanami Desert is a desert in northern Australia, situated in the Northern Territory and Western Australia. It has a rocky terrain with small hills, and cacti. The Tanami was the Northern Territory's final frontier and was not fully explored b ...

and

Great Sandy Desert The Great Sandy Desert is an interim Australian bioregion,IBRA Version 6.1
data

s in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

and into the

Simpson Desert The Simpson Desert is a large area of dry, red sandy plain and dunes in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Queensland in central Australia. It is the fourth-largest Deserts of Australia, Australian desert, with an area of . The desert ...

and

Gulf Country The Gulf Country is the region of woodland and savanna grassland surrounding the Gulf of Carpentaria in north western Queensland and eastern Northern Territory on the north coast of Australia. The region is also called the Gulf Savannah. It ...

of western

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

. It is well adapted to an arid environment and is found in a variety of habitat including stony hills and ridges, sandplains, floodplains and along drainage lines growing in stony, sandy, clay-loam soils.

Uses

Its uses include environmental management,

forage Forage is a plant material (mainly plant leaves and stems) eaten by grazing livestock. Historically, the term ''forage'' has meant only plants eaten by the animals directly as pasture, crop residue, or immature cereal crops, but it is also used m ...

and wood. The seeds are good-tasting and are potentially useful as food for humans. The results of tests in

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

for the feasibility of raising the tree as a drought-resistant food crop came out very positively.

Phytochemistry

Several recent reports of up to 1.8% dimethyltryptamine in bark. Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, ABC Radio 2005.

References