Species profile—Acacia calantha
Classification
Plantae (plants) → Equisetopsida (land plants) → Leguminosae → Acacia calantha
Sighting data
Species details
- Kingdom
- Plantae (plants)
- Class
- Equisetopsida (land plants)
- Family
- Leguminosae
- Scientific name
- Acacia calantha Pedley
- WildNet taxon ID
- 14901
- Alternate name(s)
- Dawson River wattle
- Nature Conservation Act 1992 (NCA) status
- Near threatened
- Conservation significant
- Yes
- Confidential
- No
- Endemicity
- Native
- Pest status
- Nil
- Short Notes
- BRI 242664
- Description
- Acacia calantha is a moderately dense shrub growing 1 to 3 m high. The species is glabrous and somewhat resinous. The branchlets are yellowish brown to grey, slender and glabrous. The phyllodes are erect and filiform, 7 to 15 cm long and 1 mm wide, green to grey-green in colour and slightly tuberculate along the margins. They are shallowly incurved with a prominent midrib, which when dry becomes sharply angled with three/four distinct longitudinal ridges. There are two obscure glands on the phyllodes, one is located 1 to 2 mm above the pulvinus while the another is on the base of the mucro. The inflorescences are simple, occurring as single showy bright golden globular heads made up of about 30 flowers. They occur in the upper axil nodes, with only one inflorescence per axil, on peduncles 3 to 6 mm long. The pods are narrowly oblong, slightly raised over the seeds growing to 6 cm long and 5 to 5 mm wide, chartaceous, finely reticulate and vernicose. The seeds are longitudinal, dark brown to black in colour, oblong to elliptic and 3 to 4 mm long, with a cream aril.
A. calantha is distinguished from other members of the 'A. johnsonii group' by the long, filiform phyllodes. The species is also very similar to A. juncifolia, however the latter species is non-resinous and has smaller, pale yellow flower heads on longer peduncles (5 to 10 mm) (Pedley 1979; Maslin 2001). - Distribution
- Until recently Acacia calantha was considered to be restricted to the Dawson River basin near Cracow, Queensland. New records of the species have now been found in the Coominglah State Forest, West of Monto; 35 km SW of Mundubbera; Koko State Forest, 50 km SW of Mundubbera; 6 km SW of Brovinia and two populations 42 km NE of Injune (one within Expedition National Park). At most sites, the species is common but localised (Queensland Herbarium 2011).
- Distributional limits
- -24.9042944, 148.9280555
-25.9836509, 151.0945229 - Range derivation
- Range derived from extent of the taxon's verified records
- Habitat
- A. calantha grows in sand to sandy-clay soil on the lower slopes of steep sandstone hills in dry sclerophyll forest and open forest. Associated with Corymbia trachyphloia, C. maculata, Eucalyptus cloeziana, E. tenuipes, E. crebra, E. corynodes, C. citriodora, C. tessellaris, E. fibrosa, C. watsoniana, Lysicarpus angustifolius, Angophora leiocarpa, Acacia podalyriifolia, Acacia crassa, Acacia juncifolia, A. caroleae and Astrotricha biddulphiana (Queensland Herbarium 2011).
- Reproduction
- Little is known of the biology and ecology of the species. Flower buds have been recorded in June with mature flowers in August and September. Immature fruits have been recorded in September and mature pods recorded in December (Barker 1999; Queensland Herbarium, 2011).
- Threatening processes
- Acacia calantha is only protected within one National Park. The species is found in numerous State Forests within logging areas. . Possible threatening processes include destruction of habitat by clearing (agriculture and forestry operations), inappropriate fire regimes and inappropriate grazing regimes (Barker 1999).
- Status notes
- Acacia calantha is listed as Near Threatened under Queensland's Nature Conservation Act 1992
- Management recommendations
- Barker (1995) has outlined management recommendations for the protection of A. calantha and its habitat. These include: (1) application of the Forestry Act (1959) and Forestry Regulation (1998) in areas where A. calantha occurs; (2) As there is no information about the species fire requirements, the interval between fires must be longer than the minimum age for the plant to set seed; and (3) Monitor the impacts of grazing on sites where A. calantha occurs and adjust grazing management to prevent impacts.
- Notes
- Occurs in the following Queensland pastoral districts: Burnett, Leichhardt (Queensland Herbarium 2011).
- References
- Barker, M. (1995). Acacia calantha Species Management Profile, Department of Natural Resources, Queensland.
Maslin, B.R. (2001). Acacia calantha. Flora of Australia Online. Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra. Accessed 23/02/2012. http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/abrs/online-resources/flora/main/index.html.
Pedley, L. (1979). A revision of Acacia Mill. In Queensland. Austrobaileya 1 (3): 2.
Queensland Herbarium (2011). Specimen label information. Queensland Herbarium. Accessed 15/10/2011. - Profile author
- Lynise Wearne (08/03/2012)
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=14901.
This information is sourced from the WildNet database managed by the Queensland Department of Environment and Science.
