Acacia clandullensis

Gold-dust Wattle

Family: Fabaceae subfam. Mimosoideae

This plant is an open pendulous shrub growing to 2 m high.

It is endemic to NSW, restricted to the Clandulla and Glen Davis areas in the western coastal / tablelands area, west of Sydney.

It grows at higher altitudes in stony sandy or clay-loam soils. It is associated with Western Scribbly Gum (Eucalyptus rossii) woodlands.

Australian Wattles at least, can be broadly placed into 1 of 3 recognisable groups:

Group 1: Those that produce juvenile compound-bipinnate leaves and then change to producing adult-phyllodes which are modified-flattened petioles which form the foliage. This is combined with flowers produced in globular balls or heads (or ovoid heads). The heads can be singular in leaf/phyllode axils or arranged in groups.
Group 2: As for Group 1 but flowers are produced in longer rod-like spikes.
Group 3: Those that never produce phyllodes and retain the juvenile compound-bipinnate foliage into adulthood. These always produce flowers in globular balls (which are secondarily arranged into panicle or raceme-like groups in many cases).

This wattle belongs to Group 1.

The phyllodes (modified leaves) are quite crowded and have a circular to broadly elliptic or obovate shape and are slightly twisted, to about 1.5 cm long and 1 cm wide.

Flowers are produced in globular heads, to 8 mm diameter with up to 30 small staminate flowers in each head. One head is produced per leaf/phyllode axil.

The seed pods are straight or slightly curved, to 9 cm long and 2 cm wide.

In the garden

Currently, not much is known about this species in cultivation. The appearance of the phyllodes would make it interesting to grow. It may be more widely cultivated in the future.

Acacias can suffer from a number of pests, including borers, scale, galls and leaf miners. Growing plants suitable to your local environment minimises these occurring.

Propagation

Propagation is easy from scarified seed by covering with boiling water for 24 hours and discarding any seeds still floating on the surface.

Other information

This taxon was previously a part of Acacia uncinata.

It is also similar to A. sertiformis. A. clandullensis is distinguished by its bright green twisted phyllodes and paler yellow flower heads with less flowers.

Most wattles regenerate from seed after fire with some species exhibiting basal re-shooting.

Acacia is a highly diverse genus, with over 1500 recognised species (placing it in the top-10 most-diverse plant genera) occurring in most continents except for Europe. Australia has about 970 spp., most of which are endemic. There are also about 10 exotic species. NSW has about 235 recognised species. Some species have become weeds in other states outside of their natural range (eg: wattles from Western Australia into NSW and vice versa).

Acacia – from Greek Akakia – which refers to an Ancient Greek preparation made from one of the many species; the name of which derives from akis, meaning “thorn” – referring to the thorns of species in Africa.

clandullensis – Latin – coming from the Clandulla region or locality.

This species is not considered to be at risk of extinction in the wild.

NSW Flora Online (PlantNET) – Acacia clandullensis profile page
http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Acacia~clandullensis

Wattle – Acacias of Australia – Acacia clandullensis profile page https://apps.lucidcentral.org/wattle/text/entities/acacia_clandullensis.htm

Wikipedia – Acacia clandullensis profile page
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acacia_clandullensis

January 19, 2021