Acacia costiniana

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Costin's wattle
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Caesalpinioideae
Clade: Mimosoid clade
Genus: Acacia
Species:
A. costiniana
Binomial name
Acacia costiniana
Acacia costinianaDistMap221.png
Occurrence data from AVH
Synonyms [1]

Racosperma costinianum(Tindale) Pedley

Acacia costiniana, commonly known as Costin's wattle, [2] is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to New South Wales, Australia. It is a weeping, multi-stemmed shrub with crowded, mostly ascending to erect, egg-shaped to elliptic phyllodes, oblong to more or less spherical heads of golden or rich lemon yellow flowers and thinly leathery, narrowly oblong pods.

Contents

Description

Acacia costiniana is an erect, weeping or spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of 0.6–2.5 m (2 ft 0 in – 8 ft 2 in), its branchlets covered with soft, downy hairs. Its phyllodes are mostly ascending to erect, asymmetrically egg-shaped to elliptic, 5–20 mm (0.20–0.79 in) long and 5–11 mm (0.20–0.43 in) wide, leathery, and sparsely covered with hairs pressed against the surface. There are stipules 1–3 mm (0.039–0.118 in) long at the base of the phyllodes. The flowers are borne in racemes 5–30 mm (0.20–1.18 in) long in oblong to more or less spherical heads, on a peduncle 1.5–10 mm (0.059–0.394 in) long, each head with 14 to 26 golden or rich lemon yellow flowers. Flowering occurs in August and September, and the pods are thinly leathery, narrowly oblong, up to 50 mm (2.0 in) long and 10–12 mm (0.39–0.47 in) wide and covered with velvety, rust-coloured to silvery hairs. The seeds are shiny black, egg-shaped to oblong, 4–6 mm (0.16–0.24 in) long with a club-shaped aril. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

Taxonomy

Acacia costiniana was first formally described in 1980 by Mary Tindale in the journal Telopea , from specimens collected on the Tinderry Mountains 13.2 km (8.2 mi) east-south-east of Michelago. [3] [7] The specific epithet (costiniana) honours the "renowned ecologist, Alec Baitllie Costin (1925–2022), formerly of the Division of Plant Industry, CSIRO". [2]

Distribution

Costin's wattle is restricted to the Tinderry Mountains between Captains Flat and the Bombala district, where it is found on rocky slopes in dry sclerophyll forest woodland and heath. [5] It grows at an altitude of around 1,200 m (3,900 ft) on granitic slopes or in gullies, occasionally in heath on the margins of swamps in Eucalyptus forest or woodland. [4] [6]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Acacia costiniana". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 27 July 2025.
  2. 1 2 3 Maslin, Bruce R. Kodela, Phillip G. (ed.). "Acacia costiniana". Flora of Australia. Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water: Canberra. Retrieved 27 July 2025.
  3. 1 2 Tindale, Mary (1980). "Notes on Australian taxa of Acacia No. 6". Telopea. 1 (6): 441–443. Retrieved 27 July 2025.
  4. 1 2 "Acacia costiniana". World Wide Wattle. Western Australian Herbarium . Retrieved 15 September 2019.
  5. 1 2 Kodela, Phillip G. "Acacia costiniana". Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney. Retrieved 27 July 2025.
  6. 1 2 "Acacia costiniana". Australian Biological Resources Study. Retrieved 27 July 2025.
  7. ↑ "Acacia costiniana". APNI. Retrieved 27 July 2025.
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