Species profile—Acacia spania
Classification
Plantae (plants) → Equisetopsida (land plants) → Leguminosae → Acacia spania
Sighting data
Species details
- Kingdom
- Plantae (plants)
- Class
- Equisetopsida (land plants)
- Family
- Leguminosae
- Scientific name
- Acacia spania Pedley
- WildNet taxon ID
- 14876
- Alternate name(s)
- western rosewood
- Nature Conservation Act 1992 (NCA) status
- Near threatened
- Conservation significant
- Yes
- Confidential
- No
- Endemicity
- Native
- Pest status
- Nil
- Short Notes
- BRI 157825
- Description
- Acacia spania (Western rosewood) is a single stemmed, glabrous tree growing to 15 m high. The bark is hard and peeling, described as 'ironbark' - type. The branchlets are angular, light brown in colour and scurfy. The phyllodes are 2 to 4.5 cm long and 6 to 18 mm wide, coriaceous, stiff, slightly glaucous and scurvy (like the branchlets), narrowly elliptic to elliptic in shape, flat, straight or sometimes sub-falcate. There are 3 to 5 main nerves which are not prominent and minor nerves that are 10 per mm, which are inconspicuous and not anastomosing. There is 1 rudimentary basal gland located up to 1mm above the pulvinus. The inflorescences occur as spikes 2.5 to 4 cm long, bright/lemon yellow in colour (Pedley, 1978; Maslin, 2001; Queensland Herbarium, 2011). The seedpods and seeds are unknown.
Acacia spania is probably related to A. umbellata and A. striatifolia but it has deeply lobed calyces and much smaller phyllodes (Maslin, 2001). - Distribution
- Acacia spania has been recorded from 68 km north of Aramac to as far south as Roma. The total extent of occurrence is estimated to be 204, 600 square km. Of the 13 locations recorded: 2 are located within State control land (conservation estate (Idalia NP) and State Forest (Bundoora SF)); 6 on freehold and 4 on leasehold. Of the 10 locations on freehold and leasehold land 6 are within remnant vegetation while the other 4 are in non-remnant or areas of regrowth (Halford, 2011; Queensland Herbarium, 2011). Acacia spania collecting notes indicate that the species was common in Fairview gas field in 2006, Hibbs Road, North of Jambin in 1999 and 21.5km South East of Jericho in 1993. The species was documented as only a few small trees or occasional at Fairhill, NE of Emerald in 1973 and 'Betanga' Property 28km from Alpha in 2009. The species is reported to be occasional at 5 of the 13 locations (Halford, 2011; Queensland Herbarium, 2011).
- Distributional limits
- -22.240103, 144.692835
-26.3234315, 150.3952494 - Range derivation
- Range derived from extent of the taxon's verified records
- Habitat
- Acacia spania grows mostly on rocky sandstone ridges and hills in sandy to loamy soils in eucalypt or Acacia dominated woodland communities. The species sometimes forms relatively pure stands within these communities, and has also been recorded in vine thickets along scarp edges. Altitudinal range from 400 to 600 m. There is one record of the species occurring in grey medium clay (near Roma) (Queensland Herbarium, 2011).
Within open woodland communities A. spania has been recorded in association with Eucalyptus lamprophylla with occasional patches of E. cloeziana; E. crebra with semi-evergreen vine thicket; and E. melanophloia, A. crassa. Within tall open shrubland A. spania has been recorded growing with A. aneura, A. kempeana, A. shirleyi, and Triodia pungens (Queensland Herbarium, 2011). - Reproduction
- Little is known on the biology and ecology of A. spania. Flowering occurs in August-September (Pedley 1978; Queensland Herbarium, 2011).
- Threatening processes
- There are few documented threats for Acacia spania in the literature. There is only one population of the species protected within national parks or reserves therefore potential threatening processes include destruction of habitat, disturbance of habitat by timber harvesting/ development, inappropriate grazing regime and inappropriate fire regimes. The species is potentially threatened by goat and macropod grazing pressure (arid zone, Western Queensland) (Silcock et al. 2011). Acacia spania is known from a single location north of Emerald in the Nogoa Catchment. Here its threats include frequent fire that may destroy plants before they set seed, and cattle that graze on the seed (Fletcher, 2001).
There is no data to confirm that fire has had a direct or indirect impact on Acacia spania. 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). There are no data to confirm that grazing by stock has had a direct or indirect impact on Acacia spania. It has been noted on the label of one of the collections (AQ168473) that stock show no desire to browse on small plants or branches of larger plants (Halford 2011).
In the past clearing of habitat has impacted on the species population. Clearing of habitat is a potential future threat for populations, particularly in non-remnant vegetation (Halford, 2011). - Status notes
- Acacia spania is listed as Vulnerable under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and listed as Endangered under Queensland's Nature Conservation Act 1992
- Management recommendations
- Acacia spania is a poorly known species in need of accurate survey to determine the number of populations, geographical range, area of occupancy and number of individuals (Halford, 2011).
- Notes
- Occurs in the following Queensland pastoral districts: Leichhardt, maranoa, Mitchell, Port Curtis and South Kennedy (Bostock and Holland, 2010).
Natural Resource Management regions: Fitzroy; Border Rivers/ Maranoa Balonne; Burdekin; Desert Channels
IBRA bioregions: Mulga Lands; Brigalow Belt; Desert Uplands - References
- Bostock, P.D. and Holland, A.E. (eds) (2010). Census of the Queensland Flora 2010. Queensland Herbarium, Department of Environment and Resource Management, Brisbane.
Fletcher, M. (2001). Rare and Threatened plants of the Central Highlands. Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, Emerald.
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 March 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.
Pedley, L. (1978). A revision of Acacia Mill. in Queensland. Austrobaileya 1 (2): 140.
Queensland Herbarium (2011). Specimen label information. Queensland Herbarium. Accessed 27/10/2011.
Silcock, J.L., Fensham, R.J. and Martin, T.G. (2011). Assessing rarity and threat in an arid-zone flora. Australian Journal of Botany, 59; 336-350.
Tindale, M.D. and Kodela, P.G. (1999). Acacia spania. 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=14876.
This information is sourced from the WildNet database managed by the Queensland Department of Environment and Science.
