Acacia gunnii
Benth. Ploughshare WattleDiffuse shrub, prostrate or erect, to 1 m high; branchlets usually hairy. Phyllodes patent to inclined, more or less sessile, asymmetric, shape variable, usually a pronounced rounded or triangular gland-angle on adaxial margin near or below middle, 0.4–1.5 cm long, 1.5–4 mm wide, usually 1.5–5 times as long as wide, rigid, glabrous or hairy, green, acuminate, pungent; midrib prominent and central or near lower margin; stipules persistent. Peduncles normally 1 per axil, normally 4–10 mm long, glabrous or hairy, basal bracts 3; heads globular, 20–30-flowered, cream to pale yellow, bracteoles acuminate. Flowers 5-merous; sepals united; petals often prominently 1-veined. Pods to 4 cm long, 4–5 mm wide, firmly chartaceous to thinly coriaceous, glabrous or sometimes hairy, dark brown to blackish; seeds longitudinal to oblique, widely elliptic to spherical, c. 3 mm long, variably mottled, without aril, funicle filiform. Flowers Jun.–Oct.
LoM, Wim, VVP, VRiv, GipP, OtP, Gold, CVU, GGr, DunT, NIS, EGL, EGU, WPro, HSF, HNF, MonT, HFE, VAlp. Also SA, Qld, NSW, ACT, Tas. Widespread and sometimes locally abundant on the Great Dividing Range and its foothills, growing in Eucalyptus open-forest or dryish woodlands.
Phyllode shape is very variable, ranging from semi-trullate, lanceolate or broadly to narrowly triangular but the usually prominent gland-angle on the adaxial margin distinguishes A. gunnii from other species allied to A. ulicifolia. Occasional plants with narrow phyllodes and a reduced gland-angle (e.g. north of Maffra) may be confused with A. ulicifolia or A. brownii, both of which always have glabrous phyllodes, longer (10-20 mm) peduncles and sepals only united at base (fruiting specimens collected from the Mt Johnson-Mt Victoria area in East Gippsland are possibly of hybrid origin).
Entwisle, T.J.; Maslin, B.R.; Cowan, R.S.; Court, A.B. (1996). Mimosaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 3, Dicotyledons Winteraceae to Myrtaceae, pp. 585–658. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
Spinning
