Acacia suaveolens
Sweet WattleSlender, sparingly branched shrub, usually 1–3 m high; branchlets acutely angled to flat, glabrous, sometimes pruinose. Phyllodes ascending to erect, narrowly linear to linear-oblanceolate or very narrowly elliptic, usually 7–12(–16) cm long and 3–8 mm wide, frequently slightly curved, thin to moderately coriaceous, glabrous, narrowed at base, mucronate; midrib prominent, lateral veins absent or obscure; glands not prominent, one 0–2 mm above pulvinus, usually another at base of mucro. Racemes with rachis 1–2.5 cm long, 6–12-headed, enclosed when young by conspicuous, imbricate bracts; peduncles 3–5 mm long, slender, glabrous; heads globular, 3–10-flowered, pale cream to lemon-yellow; bracteoles absent. Flowers 5(–4)-merous; sepals free, narrowly linear. Pods oblong, 2–5 cm long, 1–2 cm wide, thinly coriaceous-crustaceous, glabrous, purplish-brown to blue-black, pruinose; seeds transverse, elliptic, 6–7 mm long, shiny, black, aril brown-black. Flowers Apr.–Oct.
LoM, Wim, GleP, VVP, GipP, OtP, WaP, Gold, GGr, DunT, EGL, EGU, WPro, HSF, HNF, OtR, Strz, VAlp. Also SA, Qld, NSW, Tas. (including some Bass Strait islands). Mostly near-coastal, but also e.g. in Grampians, growing in sand or on sandstone, usually in heath or woodland.
Similar to the South Australian species (naturalised in Victoria) A. iteaphylla which has a different habit, branchlets angled only at the extremities, heads with more flowers, peduncles longer, and pods longer, usually broader and with longitudinal seeds.
Morrison & Rupp (1995) recently erected 5 subspecies of Acacia suaveolens. Of these, 2 are reported from Victoria: the widespread subsp. suaveolensand the geographically restricted subsp. grampianensisMorrison & Rupp. However, due to the substantial overlap and uncertainty of the diagnostic features, these new taxa are of doubtful utility and not recognized here. (Editors' note.)
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.
