Species profile—Acacia armitii
Classification
Plantae (plants) → Equisetopsida (land plants) → Leguminosae → Acacia armitii
Sighting data
Species details
- Kingdom
- Plantae (plants)
- Class
- Equisetopsida (land plants)
- Family
- Leguminosae
- Scientific name
- Acacia armitii F.Muell. ex Maiden
- WildNet taxon ID
- 11574
- Nature Conservation Act 1992 (NCA) status
- Near threatened
- Conservation significant
- Yes
- Confidential
- No
- Endemicity
- Native
- Pest status
- Nil
- Description
- Acacia armitii is a shrub or slender tree growing up to 7.5 m tall. The bark is grey and fissured. The branchlets are prominently angled, fawn or yellowish, glabrous and resinous. The phyllodes are yellow-green, resinous and erect, they are very narrowly elliptic to almost linear, flat, straight or very slightly curved, stiff but flexible, 4.5 to 17 cm long and 3.5 to 17 mm wide. There is one midnerve and one subprominent nerve on either side which are yellowish in colour, with 4 to 8 minor parallel nerves. The glands are basal, approximately 1 mm long. The inflorescences are yellow, solitary axillary spikes. The pods are erect and linear, straight-sided or very slightly constricted between the seeds, undulate and straight, yellowish brown in colour, sparsely pubescent especially along the margins, 2.7 to 5.5 cm long and 3.4 to 4.7 mm wide, and very resinous when young. There are 5 to 10 hard-coated seeds per pod. The seeds are blackish brown and 2 to 3.2 mm long, slightly oblique or longitudinal, broadly oblong to broadly elliptic and depressed dorsiventrally. The funicle is folded 2 or 3 times and is cream coloured.
A. armitii differs from A. plectocarpa subsp. plectocarpa by the yellowish, more prominently angled stems and narrower pods with smaller seeds. A. plectocarpa subsp. tanumbirinensis has narrower and usually longer phyllodes, while A. echinuliflora has narrower flower-spikes and wider pods and petals that are covered with an indumentum of dense, yellow hairs. Without pods, all the above mentioned species can be confused with A. torulosa, which differs mostly in having longer, moniliform, longitudinally wrinkled ridged pods. A. torulosa also has branchlets which are less angular and more terete than A. armitii and A. echinuliflora (Pedley, 1978; Leach, 1994; Kodela, 2001). - Distribution
- Acacia armitii is endemic to northern Australia and is known from disjunct regional occurrences in northern Queensland and Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. In Queensland the species has been recorded in eight areas. These include Cape York (near Wolverton); Lakefield National Park; Normanton; Spring Creek between Croydon and Georgetown; Newcastle Range; Yappa River / Sandy Creek Crossing (south of Richmond); Dead Horse Creek (south of Pentland) and Blackwood National Park (170km SSE Charters Towers) (Queensland Herbarium 2011). In the Northern Territory there are two records of the species occurring in the Upper Goodmadeer River area. Both populations consisted of only one plant (Queensland Herbarium, 2011).
- Distributional limits
- -13.3568247, 141.0844914
-21.4684443, 146.6969496 - Range derivation
- Range derived from extent of the taxon's verified records
- Habitat
- A. armitii occurs in riparian woodlands and open woodlands on sandy soil along ephemeral drainage lines with exposed hard pan layer on stream banks. Other species associated with A. armitii include Eucalyptus camaldulensis, Acacia holosericea, A. julifera subsp. gilbertensis, Melaleuca fluviatilis, E. whitei and E. similis, Acacia species, Grevillea parallela and G. pteridifolia. On Cape York A. armitii is recorded as growing within cracks in granite rock pavement on the crest of a hill. In Lakefield National Park the species was observed growing on silty loams (Queensland Herbarium, 2011).
- Reproduction
- Flowering usually occurs June to July and September to October. Fruit development may commence around August to October (Kodela, 2001; Queensland Herbarium, 2011).
- Threatening processes
- Threats to areas in which A. armitii occurs include weed invasion (e.g. Parkinsonia aculeata and rubber vine (Cryptostegia grandiflora) and degradation by high total grazing pressure. Pigs are attracted to these areas causing major soil disturbance, fouling of water holes and destroying wildlife and habitat (DERM BES, 2011). Other threats include clearing of individuals and/or associated habitat, changed fire regimes, altered surface and sub-surface hydrology, erosion and altered drainage and nutrient dynamics (CopperString, 2011).
Only two populations are protected within National parks (Lakefield National Park and Blackwood National Park) (Queensland Herbarium, 2011). - Status notes
- Acacia armitii is listed as Near Threatened under Queensland's Nature Conservation Act 1992
- Management documents
- Blackwood National Park Management Plan (DERM, 2011); Terrestrial Ecology Assessment Report (CopperString, 2011).
- Management recommendations
- It has been recommended to undertake population surveys of A. armitii within Blackwood National Park to document its extent and distribution across the park and to evaluate the response of the species to fire (DERM, 2011).
- Notes
- Occurs in the Cook, Burke and South Kennedy districts as well as the N.T. (Queensland Herbarium 2011).
- References
- CopperString (2011). Appendix A: Site records from 2011 Targeted Flora Surveys and Fauna Habitat Assessment Surveys.
Kodela, P.G. (2001). Acacia armitii. 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.
Leach, G.J. (1994). Notes and new species of Acacia (Mimosaceae) from northern Australia. Nuytsia 9 (3): 360.
Pedley, L. (1978). A revision of Acacia Mill. in Queensland. Austrobaileya 1 (2): 159-160.
Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management (DERM) (2011). Blackwood National Park Management Plan.
Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Science (DERM BES) (2009). Biocondition benchmark for regional ecosystem condition assessment.
Queensland Herbarium (2011). Specimen label information. Queensland Herbarium. Accessed 15/10/2011. - Profile author
- Lynise Wearne (01/02/2012)
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=11574.
This information is sourced from the WildNet database managed by the Queensland Department of Environment and Science.
