Some Kind of Acacia?

[immanuel]

I was walking by the beach recently when I noticed the leaves on this looked strkingly similar to Acacia Leaves. I put it off to just looking similar until yesterday I saw the beginning of flowers, which were exactly the same as when Maidenii, Obtus and Longifolia begin to flower. So I grabbed some leaves (unfortunately no pre-flowers), to see if you guys knew what it was.

Yes, it is pretty much growing ON the beach. Any Ideas?

[occidentalis]

That looks very much like longifolia.

BTW - they're not leaves. They're phyllodes (leaf petioles that have expanded to become leaf-like photosynthetic surfaces).

[Jesus On Peyote]

Im Pretty sure its not Maidenii, their leaves are usually a bit thinner and longer... dont know much bout longifolia but ild say it could be obtusifolia..Dont quote me, im sure more knowledgeable people will step in if im wrong

[Conan Troutman]

by the beach you say...most likely sophorae

[Dirty Old Man]

acacia sophoprae

[Vertmorpheus]

I haven't seen one (at least not that I noticed, and I don't tend to go looking to be honest) as Obtusi's aren't common in the areas I tend to be in, the local greening aust. nursery stocks just about every wattle that tends to hang out in my neck of the woods and it's not on their list. But I'm fairly sure obtusifolia is known for its uneven, kind of chipped looking margins on the phyllodes. Not sure if that's gospel, and nature is tricky enough to throw up the odd freak now n then.

wattles, wattles everywhere,

is that one what I think?

GD

[immanuel]

Definately not Longifolia or Maidenii. I know what those look like, and those certainly are not it. They are much, much more shrubby than tree looking. If I can, i'll try get a shot of them down at the beach. There is SOOOOOOOO much of it, lol.

Some sort of closely related species to longifolia is what I expect, as the positioning of the flowers and the phyllodes look very similar, but not the same. Acacia Sophoprae would also be my best bet.

Edited May 3, 2007 by mardybum

[occidentalis]

Some sort of closely related species to longifolia is what I expect, as the positioning of the flowers and the phyllodes look very similar, but not the same. Acacia Sophoprae would also be my best bet.

There is some debate over whether sophorae is a subspecies of longifolia or whether they are both good species. I am not terribly familiar with A. sophorae, but it looks to me a classic example of what I would call longifolia. Perhaps the longifolia in the west is not representative of the species (or species cluster) as a whole.

[Hellonasty]

There is some debate over whether sophorae is a subspecies of longifolia or whether they are both good species. I am not terribly familiar with A. sophorae, but it looks to me a classic example of what I would call longifolia. Perhaps the longifolia in the west is not representative of the species (or species cluster) as a whole.

Creach, as far as I am aware sophorae is under the A. Longifolia group, didn't know people were debating this. Commonly called Coast Wattle. Found everywhere on the east coast of N.S.W ohh and as the others said i'm sure it's a sophorae

Edited May 3, 2007 by Hellonasty

[occidentalis]

Creach, as far as I am aware sophorae is under the A. Longifolia group, didn't know people were debating this. Commonly called Coast Wattle. Found everywhere on the east coast of N.S.W ohh and as the others said i'm sure it's a sophorae

So does that mean it's its own species, or a subsp. or var. of longifolia?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acacia_longifolia says that Acacia longifolia subsp. sophorae is a subspecies of A. longifolia.

This site has Acacia longifolia var. sophorae (Labill.) F. Muell., and also lists Acacia sophorae (Labill.) R. Br. as a synonym.

And the Acacia bible, http://worldwidewattle.com has:

Two subspecies are here recognised within this taxon but some authors, including D.R.Murray et al. , Austral. J. Bot. 26: 755–771 (1978) and L.Pedley, Austrobaileya 1: 164 (1978), treat A. longifolia and A. sophorae as distinct species. These views do not appear to be tenable and the author follows the same view as expressed by D.J.E.Whibley & D.E.Symon, Acacias S. Australia 2nd edn, 266 (1992). Subsp. sophorae occurs mainly along the coastal strip and subsp. longifolia occurs more towards the hinterland. However, in some localities the two subspecies appear to grade almost imperceptively into one another, for example in the Bargo-Wollongong district S of Sydney, N.S.W.

From this it looks like subsp. longifolia and subsp. sophorae are two poles of a continuum within the species Acacia ongifolia.

btw, sorry if everyone already knew this... it wasn't clear from the comments above

[occidentalis]

Here's that Murray et al. 1978 paper. It hasn't generated many citations, which is a bummer, because I would be interested to know why WWWattle reckon this position is untenable. This looks to me like a fairly thorough study, although it is kinda old.

Murray_et_al_1978___Acacia_longifolia_and_sophorae_taxonomy.pdf

Murray_et_al_1978___Acacia_longifolia_and_sophorae_taxonomy.pdf

Murray_et_al_1978___Acacia_longifolia_and_sophorae_taxonomy.pdf