Species profile—Acacia jackesiana
Classification
Plantae (plants) → Equisetopsida (land plants) → Leguminosae → Acacia jackesiana
Sighting data
Species details
- Kingdom
- Plantae (plants)
- Class
- Equisetopsida (land plants)
- Family
- Leguminosae
- Scientific name
- Acacia jackesiana Pedley
- WildNet taxon ID
- 11550
- Nature Conservation Act 1992 (NCA) status
- Least concern
- Conservation significant
- No
- Confidential
- No
- Endemicity
- Native
- Pest status
- Nil
- Short Notes
- BRI 242604 (Holotype), 242605 (Isotype), status annotated by author
- Description
- Acacia jackesiana (Betsy's Wattle) is a prostrate shrub growing to 1 m high. The branchlets are red-brown in colour, slightly angular becoming resinous towards the tips and squamulose. The phyllodes are tetragonous-terete in section, 9 to 14 cm long and 0.8 to 1 mm wide, glabrous and squamulose. There is one strong nerve at each angle, and 1 or 2 less obvious median nerves on the abaxial and adaxial faces, with 8 to 12 nerves in total. At the base of each phyllode there is 1 small basal gland (Maslin, 2001).
The inflorescences are in spikes, which are golden in colour and 1.2 to 2.2 cm long. The pods are 6 to 10.5 cm long and 8 m wide, linear in shape, tapered at both ends, and slightly moniliform. They are subwoody, reticulate, glabrous and the margins are fawn in colour and prominent. The seeds are 4.8 to 5.4 mm long and light brown in colour, longitudinal, elliptic, with a paler brown areole (Pedley, 1979; Maslin, 2001).
Acacia jackesiana belongs to a small group of species native to North Queensland, including A. guymeri and A. whitei. A. whitei resembles A. jackesiana, especially in the size and shape of the phyllodes and the structure of the flowers, but differs in the venation of the phyllode and the extremely open spike (Pedley, 1979; Maslin, 2001). - Distribution
- There are approximately 28 populations of A. jackesiana recorded in North Queensland, ranging from Cape Palmerston south of Mackay to Undara National Park, east of Mount Surprise (Queensland Herbarium, 2011). Acacia jackesiana was previously found at Greenvale Mine site covering 10-20ha of land, however recent vegetation surveys of the area found no evidence of the species (Batianoff, 1995).
- Distributional limits
- -18.1897222, 144.2000277
-21.6639876, 149.4269205 - Range derivation
- Range derived from extent of the taxon's verified records
- Habitat
- Acacia jackesiana occurs in four localities within Undara National Park, growing in woodland associated with Corymbia ellipsoidea and Eucalyptus crebra on a low granite rise, and granite outcrops. The species is generally considered rare in the area. Within the Greenvale area, the species occurs on lateritic soils within E. crebra / E. erythrophloia grassy woodlands. Populations here occur on mining sites. The species is considered rare.
Around Townsville the species occurs in numerous locations, including 2 sites on Magnetic Island. The species occurs within woodlands on granitic stony hillsides. Associated species include E. acmenoides, C. clarksoniana, C. citriodora and E. drepanophylla. Further south, in the Burdekin Gorge area the species has been recorded in open-woodland of E. xanthoclada on rocky hilly terrain with sandy/clay soil, and around the Leichhardt Range area A. jackesiana occurs on acid volcanics in woodland dominated by E. shirleyi with Themeda and Heteropogon. The species is considered rare or uncommon in all areas (Queensland Herbarium, 2011). - Reproduction
- Little is known on the biology and ecology of A. jackesiana. Flowering is documented as occurring in July and October (Maslin, 2001). More recent records have recorded flowering in July and December-February, with immature pods in July and December (Queensland Herbarium, 2011).
- Threatening processes
- Major threats to the species include alteration of ground cover by exotic species, changes in fire regime, quarrying and road building (Calvert et al. 2005). Potential impacts also include clearing of individuals or associated habitat, decreased habitat quality through weed invasion, excessive dust, changed fire regimes altered surface and sub-surface hydrology, erosion and altered drainage and nutrient dynamics introduced through neighbouring construction and maintenance activities (CopperString, 2011).
- Status notes
- Acacia jackesiana is listed as Least Concern under Queensland's Nature Conservation Act 1992
- Management recommendations
- Acacia jackesiana requires accurate survey to precisely determine the number of subpopulations, geographical range, area of occupancy and number of individuals. There is little information available on the landscape ecology, genetics, reproductive biology, dispersal, recruitment or population structure of this species (Forster, 2009).
- Notes
- Occurs in the following Queensland pastoral districts: North Kennedy, South Kennedy (Bostock and Holland, 2010).
This species has been recorded from Regional Ecosystems 8.12.22, 9.12.1, 9.12.3, 9.12.4, 9.12.22, 9.12.36 and 11.12.1. - References
- Batianoff, G.N. (1995). Summary of Rare and Endemic Plants of Serpentinite Outcrops of Queensland. Queensland Herbarium, DERM.
Bostock, P.D. and Holland, A.E. (eds) (2010). Census of the Queensland Flora 2010. Queensland Herbarium, Department of Environment and Resource Management, Brisbane.
Calvert, G.A., Lokkers, C. and Cumming, R. (2005). Rare plants of Townsville-Thuringowa. Coastal Dry Tropics Landcare Inc., Townsville.
CopperString (2011). Terrestrial Ecology Assessment Report. CopperString Project SEIS for CopperString Pty Ltd.
Forster, P. (2009). Conservation Status Assessment for Acacia jackesiana Rare and Threatened Species Technical Committee November 2009.
Pedley, L. (1978). A revision of Acacia Mill. In Queensland. Austrobaileya 1 (2): 128.
Queensland Herbarium (2011). Specimen label information. Queensland Herbarium. Accessed 21/10/2011.
Tindale, M.D. and Kodela, P.G. (1999). Acacia jackesiana. 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 (16/08/2012)
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=11550.
This information is sourced from the WildNet database managed by the Queensland Department of Environment and Science.
