Acacia confluens

Wyrilda
In the Australian National Botanic Gardens
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1) [1]
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. confluens
Binomial name
Acacia confluens Maiden & Blakely [2]
Occurrence data from AVH
Synonyms [2]
Racosperma confluens(Maiden & Blakely) Pedley

Acacia confluens, commonly known as wyrilda, ^[3] is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to South Australia. It is a shrub with a spreading, umbrella-like crown and glabrous branchlets, narrowly elliptic phyllodes, spherical heads of pale yellow to yellow flowers and glabrous, thickly leathery to more or less woody pods, rounded over the seeds.

Description

Acacia confluens is a shrub with a spreading, umbrella-like crown, and that typically grows to a height of 2 to 3 m (6 ft 7 in to 9 ft 10 in) and has glabrous branchlets. Its phyllodes are glabrous, narrowly elliptic and curved, 60–140 mm (2.4–5.5 in) long and 5–25 mm (0.20–0.98 in) wide, but up to 25 mm (0.98 in) wide at the base of the branches. There are one or two glands usually 2–6 mm (0.079–0.236 in) above the base of the phyllodes. The flowers are borne is spherical heads in racemes mostly 20–40 mm (0.79–1.57 in) long on peduncles usually 6–15 mm (0.24–0.59 in) long. The heads are about 8 mm (0.31 in) in diameter with 40 to 60 pale yellow to yellow flowers. Flowering occurs roughly from June to September and the pods are rounded on opposite sides over alternate seeds, up to 250 mm (9.8 in) long and 12–17 mm (0.47–0.67 in) wide and thickly leathery to more or less woody and glabrous. The seeds are broadly elliptic, reddish brown to black and 6.5–7.5 mm (0.26–0.30 in) long with a club-shaped aril. ^{[3] [4] [5] [6]}

Taxonomy

Acacia confluens was first formally described in 1927 by Joseph Maiden and William Blakely in the Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales from specimens collected by Max Koch on Mount Lyndhurst. ^{[7] [8]} The specific epithet is taken from the Latin word confluens meaning 'flowing into' in reference to the way the main vein merges with the margin. ^[6] Aboriginal people call the plant wyrilda, and used the seeds of the plant as food. ^[8]

Distribution and habitat

Wyrilda is endemic in South Australia, where it is found at the northern end of the Flinders Ranges, from Mount Lyndhurst east as far as Arkaroola ^[6] in the Tirari Desert and Sturt Stony Desert regions where it grows in gullies and on stony hillsides in skeletal, calcareous loamy soils in tall shrubland. ^{[1] [4]}

See also

• List of Acacia species

References

1. E.Williams. "Wyrilda Acacia confluens". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
2. "Acacia confluens". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 16 July 2025.
3. "Acacia confluens". World Wide Wattle. Western Australian Herbarium . Retrieved 17 April 2019.
4. Maslin, Bruce R.; Kodela, Phillip G. "Acacia confluens". Flora of Australia. Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water: Canberra. Retrieved 16 July 2025.
5. "Acacia confluens". Wattle - Acacias of Australia. Lucid Central. Retrieved 16 July 2025.
6. "Acacia confluens". Electronic Flora of South Australia species Fact Sheet. State Herbarium of South Australia . Retrieved 18 April 2019.
7. "Acacia confluens". APNI. Retrieved 16 July 2025.
8. Maiden, Joseph H.; Blakely, William F. (1927). "Descriptions of fifteen new Acacia and notes on several other species". Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales. 60: 183–184. Retrieved 16 July 2025.