Species profile—Acacia ramiflora
Classification
Plantae (plants) → Equisetopsida (land plants) → Leguminosae → Acacia ramiflora
Sighting data
Species details
- Kingdom
- Plantae (plants)
- Class
- Equisetopsida (land plants)
- Family
- Leguminosae
- Scientific name
- Acacia ramiflora Domin
- WildNet taxon ID
- 15689
- Alternate name(s)
- White Mountain's wattle
- Nature Conservation Act 1992 (NCA) status
- Least concern
- Conservation significant
- No
- Confidential
- No
- Endemicity
- Native
- Pest status
- Nil
- Description
- Acacia ramiflora is a slender shrub growing to 3 m high. The branchlets are angled downwards, terete and hairless. The phyllodes are linear-elliptic to linear-oblanceolate, incurved, 8 to 15 cm long and 3 to 8 mm wide, thinly coriaceous and glabrous. They are narrowed towards the base, tapering gradually or abruptly to an acute point with a mucro to 2 mm long. There are 3 indistinct to slightly raised main nerves on the phyllodes, and a few obscure anastomosing minor nerves in between. A gland is located 0.2 mm above the pulvinus, with 1 or 2 additional glands often present. The inflorescences are simple or rudimentary racemes, with one globular head 4.5 to 5 mm in diameter on glabrous peduncles 3 to 5 mm long to 9 mm long when in fruit. There is a persistent basal bract. The seed pods are 9 cm long and 8 mm wide, linear in shape, alternatively raised over and slightly constricted between the seeds. The pods are coriaceous, maybe be glaucous, hairless, faintly reticulate with the marginal nerve evident. The seeds (immature) are longitudinal, without an aril, and the funicle is thickened throughout its length (Pedley, 1978; Maslin, 2001).
Acacia ramiflora is related to A. simsii, the latter is distinguished by the longer peduncles, narrower pods and arillate funicles (Maslin, 2001). - Map
- View Map
- Distribution
- Acacia ramiflora is known from north Queensland, growing on sandstone hills in the Torrens Creek Pentland region in the Great Dividing Range and Robertson River area near the headwaters of the Gilbert River (Pedley, 1978). The species has also been collected from the Princess Hills area of the upper Herbert River, the Newcastle Range, near Paluma south of Ingham, the Montgomery Range south of Gray Creek, the Gregory Range, 80 km north-east of Hughenden on the road to Clyde Park, Warrigal Creek between Pentland and Longton, Mt Zero-Taravale Nature Refuge, the Gulf Development Road towards Richmond, the Yappar River crossing, Croydon-Claraville road, Ben Lomond Mining lease (south of Townsville) and the Gregory Development Road south of Belyando River (DSEWPC, 2008; Queensland Herbarium, 2011).
- Distributional limits
- -17.6761111, 141.7783333
-21.7209432, 146.9580625 - Range derivation
- Range derived from extent of the taxon's verified records
- Habitat
- Acacia ramiflora is found growing in open forest on stony or skeletal soils derived from sandstone and granite. Associated species include Eucalyptus crebra, Corymbia citriodora, C. peltata, C. leichhardtii, C. setosa, C. clarksoniana, Alphitonia and Petalostigma. Near Bingaroo Bore, A. ramiflora was observed growing in open forest with E. camaldulensis and E. dolichocarpa (Queensland Herbarium, 2011).
A. ramiflora collecting notes indicate that the species was common in 2001 at Warrigal Creek and 18 km south of the Belyando River; common 34 km east of Forsayth in 2005; scattered on the Gorge Creek Track in Blackbraes NP in 2002, and uncommon at Greenvale south of Gray Creek in 2000. In 2005, only three plants were seen at Mount Zero Taravale Nature Refuge and two plants at a site south of the Paluma Running River Road (Queensland Herbarium, 2011). - Behaviour
- As A. ramiflora grows within communities that undergo regular fire, the response is likely to be an important aspect of its ecology. Recent studies indicate A. ramiflora is capable of sprouting after fire, A high proportion (94%) of established A. ramiflora plants were found to resprout. Seedling recruitment was also found to respond to fire, with a pulse of fire-triggered seedling recruitment occurring in the wet season following fire, and no recruitment recorded in an adjacent unburnt area. Seedling survival in these areas was also subsequently found to be very high (80%). A small proportion of A. ramiflora seedlings (4%) were producing flower buds in their third year (Williams et al. 2004).
- Reproduction
- Flowering specimens have been collected in February and April-July (Pedley, 1978; Queensland Herbarium, 2011). Specimens with young fruit were recorded in July and August and plants with mature fruit in September (Pedley, 1978; Queensland Herbarium, 2011).
- Threatening processes
- The species occurs across a range of locations and is protected within a number of national parks, thus there are no identified current threats to A. ramiflora and therefore the species is unlikely to undergo a substantial reduction in the near future. The primary, current threatening process is land clearing for grazing or road/track construction; however, as with many wattles, this species is likely to regenerate strongly from seeds in disturbed areas (Forster, 2008).
- Status notes
- Acacia ramiflora is Least Concern under Queensland's Nature Conservation Act 1992.
- Management documents
- Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities (DSEWPC) (2008). Acacia ramiflora in Species Profile and Threats Database, Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, Canberra. Available from: http://www.environment.gov.au/sprat. Accessed Wed, 11 Oct 2011 14:12:09 +1100.
- Management recommendations
- Queensland transport and roads network (north west region) completed planting 200 A. ramiflora saplings as a part of a site revegetation project at the Burra Range Rest Area, 135 km west of Charters Towers. The project was a joint effort between TMW, James Cook University and Flinders Shire Council (Queensland Transport and Roads Investment Program 2010/11 to 2012/13).
DSEWPC (2008) documents regional and local priority actions to support the recovery of A. ramiflora. A summary of these include: avoiding habitat loss, disturbance and modification (e.g. monitor known populations, control access routes, minimise land use impacts), managing fire (suitable fire management strategies), increasing conservation awareness (raise awareness in the local community), and enabling recovery of additional sites and/or populations (e.g. undertake appropriate seed collection and storage). - Notes
- Occurs in the following Queensland pastoral districts: Burke, Cook, Mitchell, North Kennedy, South Kennedy (Bostock and Holland, 2010). The species was previously listed as vulnerable under the EPBC Act 1999.
- 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.
Cowan, R.S. and Maslin, R.B. (1999). Acacia ramiflora. 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.
Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities (DSEWPC) (2008). Acacia ramiflora in Species Profile and Threats Database, Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, Canberra. Accessed 11/10/2011. http://www.environment.gov.au/sprat.
Forster, P. (2008). Conservation Status Assessment for Acacia ramiflora Rare and Threatened Species Technical Committee November 2009.
Pedley, L. (1978). A revision of Acacia Mill. In Queensland. Austrobaileya 1 (2): 210.
Queensland Herbarium (2011). Specimen label information. Queensland Herbarium. Accessed 26/10/2011.
Queensland Transport and Roads Investment Program 2010-11 to 2013-14. North West - Regional Profile. P 216. Accessed 26/10/11.
Williams, P.R., Kimlin, S.R., Anchen, G.E. and Staier, E.G. (2004). Post-fire sprouting and seedling recruitment of Acacia ramiflora (Mimosaceae), a threatened shrub of sandstone and granite heathy woodland in northern Australia. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland. 111: 103-105. - 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=15689.
This information is sourced from the WildNet database managed by the Queensland Department of Environment and Science.
