Species profile—Acacia hockingsii
Classification
Plantae (plants) → Equisetopsida (land plants) → Leguminosae → Acacia hockingsii
Sighting data
Species details
- Kingdom
- Plantae (plants)
- Class
- Equisetopsida (land plants)
- Family
- Leguminosae
- Scientific name
- Acacia hockingsii Pedley
- WildNet taxon ID
- 14911
- Alternate name(s)
- Hocking's wattle
- Nature Conservation Act 1992 (NCA) status
- Vulnerable
- Conservation significant
- Yes
- Confidential
- No
- Endemicity
- Native
- Pest status
- Nil
- Short Notes
- BRI 056713
- Description
- Acacia hockingsii (Hocking's wattle) is a rounded shrub growing to 3 m tall. The species is glabrous, somewhat viscid with young reddish shoots. The phyllodes are green in colour, erect and shallowly curved to shallowly sigmoid and narrowed towards the base, 6 to 10 cm long and 2 to 3 mm wide. They have a slightly thickened mucro, somewhat tuberculate margins, and a midrib which is usually evident. The gland is linear, and is usually 0.5 to 1.5 mm long, and located 1.5 to 4 mm above the pulvinus. There is a small circular gland at the base of the mucro (Pedley, 1979; Maslin, 2001).
The inflorescences are simple, with 1 per axil, they have deep golden globular heads made up of 30 flowers, occurring on peduncles which are 3 to 5 mm long. They are ebracteate at the base. The seedpods are 8 cm long and 5 to 7 mm wide, narrowly oblong to linear, chartaceous and convex over the seeds. The seeds are longitudinal, oblong to ovate, 2.5 to 3.5 mm long, with the funicle folded beneath the oblique aril.
Acacia hockingsii is a member of the 'A. johnsonii ' group' and distinguished from its closest relatives, A. eremophiloides, A. gnidium, and A. ixodes by its very long phyllodes. Acacia island, another member of the 'A. johnsonii group' is restricted to Isla Gorge and is recognised by its short, terete to subterete phyllodes. A. hockingsii also resembles A. sabulosa however the latter is distinguished by its longer peduncles, heads with more flowers and broader pods enclosing transverse seeds (Pedley, 1979; Maslin, 2001). - Map
- View Map
- Distribution
- Acacia hockingsii is endemic to Queensland, located in the central highlands, north of Taroom in the Brigalow Belt bioregion. Until recently Acacia hockingsii was restricted to three populations within the Isla Gorge National Park. One plant was recently found south of Isla Gorge, just outside of Wondekai Nature Reserve, and another population was found growing in Palmgrove National Park (Queensland Herbarium, 2011).
- Distributional limits
- -24.8895531, 149.4615308
-25.2616667, 150.0575 - Range derivation
- Range derived from extent of the taxon's verified records
- Habitat
- A. hockingsii grows in shallow soil over sandstone in eucalypt woodland. Associated vegetation and species include woodland composed of Corymbia watsoniana, Allocasuarina inophloia, Eucalyptus tenuipes, E. cloeziana, Lysicarpus angustifolius and Acacia shirleyi; woodland composed of Eucalyptus crebra, E. cloeziana, Corymbia clarksoniana, C. watsoniana; midlayer composed of sparse Ficus opposita and Opuntia tomentosa; grassy ground layer composed of Arundinella nepalensis, Cymbopogon refractus and Gomphocarpus physocarpus (Queensland Herbarium, 2011)
- Reproduction
- A. hockingsii flowers in September and fruits in December (Pedley, 1979; Queensland Herbarium, 2011).
- Threatening processes
- The majority of A. hockingsii populations are protected within National Parks (Isla Gorge National Park and Palmgrove National Park). Given the small number of populations and the close proximity of each of them, stochastic events such as fire may affect these populations. Other threats included altered fire regimes, and the effects of introduced species. Genetic effects due to fragmented subpopulations also represent a potential threat (Forster, 2009).
- Status notes
- Acacia hockingsii is listed as Vulnerable under Queensland's Nature Conservation Act 1992
- Management recommendations
- This species requires accurate survey to precisely determine the number of subpopulations, geographical range, area of occupancy and number of individuals. Information is also required on the landscape ecology, genetics, reproductive biology, dispersal, recruitment or population structure of this species (Forster, 2009).
- Notes
- Occurs in the following Queensland pastoral district: Leichhardt (Bostock and Holland, 2010).
- 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.
Forster, P. (2009). Conservation Status Assessment for Acacia jackesiana Rare and Threatened Species Technical Committee November 2009.
Maslin, B.R. (1999). Acacia hockingsii. 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.
Pedley, L. (1979). A revision of Acacia Mill. in Queensland. Austrobaileya 1 (3): 255.
Queensland Herbarium (2011). Specimen label information. Queensland Herbarium. Accessed 28/08/2011. - 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=14911.
This information is sourced from the WildNet database managed by the Queensland Department of Environment and Science.
