Acacia beckleri

Acacia beckleri
Barrier Range wattle in Maranoa Gardens
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Rosids
Order:	Fabales
Family:	Fabaceae
Subfamily:	Caesalpinioideae
Clade:	Mimosoid clade
Genus:	Acacia
Species:	A. beckleri
Binomial name
Acacia beckleri Tindale [1]
Occurrence data from Australasian Virtual Herbarium
Synonyms [1]
Racosperma beckleri(Tindale) Pedley Acacia gladiiformisauct. non A.Cunn. ex Benth.: Black, J.M. (1924) Acacia notabilisauct. non F.Muell.: Bentham, G. (1864)

Habit in the Australian National Botanic Gardens

Acacia beckleri commonly known as Barrier Range wattle, ^[2] is a flowering plant in the family Acacia . It is an upright or spreading shrub with green or bluish-green leaves and spherical heads of yellow flowers.

Description

Acacia beckleri is a decumbent, spreading or upright shrub 1–3 m (3 ft 3 in – 9 ft 10 in) high with reddish-brown stems and branches. The phyllodes are lance-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, or narrowly elliptic, straight or slightly curved. The phyllodes are green to pale green, faintly veined, 6–20 cm (2.4–7.9 in) long and 5–25 mm (0.20–0.98 in) wide, tapering at the base and rounded or pointed at the end. The flower are usually borne in spherical heads on a peduncle mostly 2–7 mm (0.079–0.276 in) long, the heads 8–15 mm (0.31–0.59 in) in diameter with 50 to 140 dark yellow or golden-yellow flowers. Flowering occurs from May to August and the fruit is a straight, flat, reddish-brown pod, mostly straight-sided to barely constricted between the seeds. ^{[3] [4] [5] [6]}

Taxonomy and naming

Barrier Range wattle was first formally described in 1965 by Mary Tindale and the description was published in the Supplement to J.M.Black's Flora of South Australia (Second Edition, 1943-1957). ^[6] It is named after Dr Hermann Beckler, the botanist on the Burke and Wills expedition in 1861, who collected the type specimen in a "glen to the gorge Nothungbulla, Hodgson's Basin, near the Barrier Range. ^{[7] [8]}

In 2008, Martin C. O'Leary described Acacia beckleri subsp. megaspherica, and the name, and that of the autonym are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:

• Acacia beckleriTindale subsp. beckleri (the autonym), ^[9] has peduncles 1–2 mm (0.039–0.079 in) wide and 4–7 mm (0.16–0.28 in) long, and 54 to 67 flowers in each head. ^{[10] [11]}
• Acacia beckleri subsp. megasphericaO'Leary ^[12] has peduncles 2–4 mm (0.079–0.157 in) wide and 2–4 mm (0.079–0.157 in) long, and 80 to 140 flowers in each head. ^[13]

Distribution and habitat

Acacia beckleri grows mainly on slopes in shallow soils on the Eyre Peninsula and east to the Olary Ranges, in the Gammon Ranges and Barrier Range in South Australia and near Cobar and Jerilderie in western New South Wales. ^[14] Subspecies megaspherica is only found in South Australia in the Gammon Ranges and Mount Hack, and south through Wilpena Pound.

Use in horticulture

This plant can be propagated by seed and probably also cuttings. ^[4]

See also

• List of Acacia species

References

1. "Acacia beckleri". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 29 May 2024.
2. Kodela, P.G. "Acacia beckleri". PlantNET-NSW Flora online. Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. Retrieved 29 May 2024.
3. Maslin, Bruce R. Kodela, Phillip G. (ed.). "Acacia beckleri". Flora of Australia. Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water: Canberra. Retrieved 3 April 2025.
4. Simmons, Marion (1981). Acacias of Australia (1 ed.). Melbourne, Victoria: Thomas Nelson Australia. p. 162. ISBN   0170057798.
5. "Acacia beckleri". World Wide Wattle. Retrieved 3 April 2025.
6. Tindale, Mary D. (1965). Supplement to J.M.Black's Flora of South Australia (PDF) (2 ed.). Adelaide, Australia: Government Printer. p. 173. Retrieved 3 June 2024.
7. "Acacia beckleri". Australian Government. 1976.
8. "Acacia beckleri". APNI. Retrieved 2 April 2025.
9. "Acacia beckleri subsp. beckleri". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 3 April 2025.
10. "A new subspecies of Acacia beckleri (Leguminosae: Mimosoideae) from the Flinders Ranges, South Australia". Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens. 22: 63–66. 2008. Retrieved 3 April 2025.
11. Maslin, Bruce R. Kodela, Phillip G. (ed.). "Acacia beckleri subsp. beckleri". Flora of Australia. Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water: Canberra. Retrieved 3 April 2025.
12. "Acacia beckleri subsp. megaspherica". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 3 April 2025.
13. Maslin, Bruce R. Kodela, Phillip G. (ed.). "Acacia beckleri subsp. megaspherica". Flora of Australia. Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water: Canberra. Retrieved 3 April 2025.
14. Kodela, Phillip G. "Acacia beckleri Tindale". Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney.