Species profile—Acacia tenuinervis
Classification
Plantae (plants) → Equisetopsida (land plants) → Leguminosae → Acacia tenuinervis
Sighting data
Species details
- Kingdom
- Plantae (plants)
- Class
- Equisetopsida (land plants)
- Family
- Leguminosae
- Scientific name
- Acacia tenuinervis Pedley
- WildNet taxon ID
- 11501
- Alternate name(s)
- scrub wattle
- Nature Conservation Act 1992 (NCA) status
- Least concern
- Conservation significant
- No
- Confidential
- No
- Endemicity
- Native
- Pest status
- Nil
- Short Notes
- BRI 220861 (Holotype), 030325 (Isotype)
- Description
- Acacia tenuinervis (scrub wattle) is a shrub or tree growing to 9 m high, often with root suckers. The bark is furrowed, black or grey-brown in colour. The branchlets are orange-red or red-brown and slightly angular towards the apices becoming terete. When young the branchlets are velutinous, later becoming glabrous and scurfy. The adult phyllodes are very narrowly elliptic to narrowly elliptic, straight to falcate, 6.5 to 12.5 cm long and 15 to 30 mm wide, glabrous or slightly scurfy. The juvenile phyllodes are densely covered with matted, short, hairs, and are 7 to 9 cm long by 2 cm wide. There are 3 or 5 slightly prominent free main nerves, and 4 to 7 minor nerves (not anastomosing) occurring per mm. There is 1 large basal gland (Pedley, 1978; Pedley, 1987; Maslin, 2001).
The inflorescences occur as strongly perfumed, bright golden-yellow spikes, 3 to 6 cm long (Queensland Herbarium, 2011). The seed pods are 2 to 11 cm long and 2 to 4 mm wide, chartaceous and scurfy. They are slightly constricted and raised over the seeds. The seeds are longitudinal, oblong-elliptic in shape, 3.5 to 6 mm long and black in colour. The areole is open, narrow and elongate.
Acacia tenuinervis is similar to A. blakei and A. striatifolia. It differs from A. blakei by having more elongate and broader phyllodes, shorter seed pods and densely hairy covered young branchlets and juvenile phyllodes. It differs from A. striatifolia by having rather longer axillary shoots and hairy young plants (Lithgow 1997; Maslin, 2001). - Distribution
- Acacia tenuinervis occurs across approximately 18 locations in south-eastern Queensland (1 in National Park estate, 4 in State Forests, 5 on Freehold and 1 Leasehold land, 5 on road verges). Of the six locations recorded on freehold and leasehold land four are in remnant vegetation. The species has been found at Impey Pastoral Holding, NE of Wandoan; Waaje Wild Flower Scientific Area; numerous populations north and south of Chinchilla, and the most southern population at Mt Jibbinbar, Sundown NP, west-south-west of Stanthorpe (Queensland Herbarium, 2011). The species is reported to be rare (1 record) or abundant (2 records) at some of the recorded locations (Queensland Herbarium, 2011).
- Distributional limits
- -25.8734197, 149.6594502
-27.2234252, 151.6427422 - Range derivation
- Range derived from extent of the taxon's verified records
- Habitat
- The species grows on light brown loamy soil with gravel content, sandy loam soil, red earths and in ironstone gravel (Barker, 1997; Golder Associates, 2008; Queensland Herbarium, 2011). Acacia tenuinervis occurs in Brigalow scrub or eucalypt woodland. Associated species include; Callitris glaucophylla, Angophora leiocarpa woodland with scattered Corymbia clarksoniana; midlayer composed of Alphitonia excelsa and Petalostigma pubescens, A. conferta and A. leiocalyx and; A. tenuinervis populations (100+ plants) among Eucalyptus crebra, Callitris glaucophylla woodland; midlayer composed of Alstonia constricta and Acacia wardellii (Queensland Herbarium, 2011). Around the Chinchilla area it is common on roadsides (Barker 1997; Queensland Herbarium, 2011).)
- Reproduction
- Little is known on the biology and ecology of A. tenuinervis. Flowering specimens have been collected from April to September (Stanley 1996; Queensland Herbarium, 2011). Pods have been collected in August (Queensland Herbarium, 2011).
- Threatening processes
- There are no documented threatening processes for Acacia tenuinervis. Possible threats listed by Barker (1997) are destruction of habitat due to clearing, disturbance of habitat by timber harvesting and inappropriate fire and grazing regimes. In the past clearing of habitat has most likely impacted on the species population. Clearing of habitat is a potential future threat for populations, particularly those in non-remnant vegetation. The population within the conservation estate is probably reasonably secure (Barker, 1997).
There are no data to confirm that fire has had a direct or indirect impact on Acacia tenuinervis. However, frequent cool burns have been shown to be detrimental to some Acacias (House, 1995, Taylor, 1989). Annual cool burns to promote grass for grazing have been a common management practice (Taylor, 1989). An inappropriate fire regime is a possible potential threat to some populations (Barker, 1997).
It has been noted on the label of one of the collections (AQ378150) that stock do browse on the plants of Acacia tenuinervis. However, there are no data to confirm that grazing by stock has had a direct or indirect impact on the species population. (Queensland Herbarium, 2011)
A large proportion of Acacia tenuinervis range is situated roughly in the middle of the Surat Basin - a coal-rich area. There is currently major growth and development of coal mining, underground coal gasification and the establishment of new power stations in the region. This development could be a possible potential threat to some populations (Halford, 2011). - Status notes
- Acacia tenuinervis is listed as Near Threatened under Queensland's Nature Conservation Act 1992
- Management documents
- Barker M (1997). Acacia tenuinervis Species Management Profile, Department of Natural Resources, Queensland.
- Management recommendations
- Barker (1997) described some management recommendations for the protection of A. tenuinervis and its habitat which included: a protective buffer around A. tenuinervis (of at least 0.3 ha) that excludes timber harvesting and clearing; recommended intervals between prescribed burns; and monitor and the impact of grazing and adjust grazing management accordingly.
- Notes
- Occurs in the following Queensland pastoral districts: Burnett and Darling Downs (Bostock and Holland 2010) .
- References
- Barker, M. (1997). Acacia tenuinervis Species Management Profile, Department of Natural Resources, Queensland.
Bostock, P.D. and Holland, A.E. (eds) (2010). Census of the Queensland Flora 2010. Queensland Herbarium, Department of Environment and Resource Management, Brisbane.
Halford, D. (2011). Species nomination form and guidelines for adding or changing the category of a native species listing under the Queensland Nature Conservation Act 1992 (NCA). Rare and Threatened Species Technical Committee September 2011.
House, A. (1995). Fire ecology research in Queensland native forest - current status and new directions. In: 6th Queensland Fire Research Workshop, Darling Downs Institute of Advanced Education, Toowoomba.
Lithgow, G. (1997). Sixty Wattles of the Chinchilla and Murilla Shires, M.G. Lithgow, Chinchilla, Queensland.
Pedley, L. (1978). A revision of Acacia Mill. in Queensland. Austrobaileya 1 (2): 142.
Pedley, L. (1987). Acacias in Queensland, pp. 142-143. Queensland Herbarium. Queensland Department of Primary Industries.
Pedley, L. in Stanley, T.D. and Ross, E.M. (1983). Flora of South-eastern Queensland 1: 351.
Queensland Herbarium (2011). Specimen label information. Queensland Herbarium. Accessed 24/10/2011.
Stanley, T.D. and Ross, E.M. (1986). Flora of south-eastern Australia, Volume 1. Queensland Herbarium, Queensland Department of Primary Industries, Brisbane
Taylor, M.T. (1989). Fire in subtropical forest management. In 4th Queensland Fire Research Workshop, Darling Downs Institute of advanced Education, Toowoomba.
Tindale, M.D. and Kodela, P.G. (1999). Acacia tenuinervis. Flora of Australia Online. Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra. Accessed 21/06/2012. http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/abrs/online-resources/flora/main/index.html. - Profile author
- Lynise Wearne (21/06/2012)
Other resources
Data source
This profile data is sourced from the QLD Wildlife Data API using the Get species by ID function used under CC-By 4.0.
https://apps.des.qld.gov.au/species/?op=getspeciesbyid&taxonid=11501.
This information is sourced from the WildNet database managed by the Queensland Department of Environment and Science.
