Species profile—Acacia storyi
Classification
Plantae (plants) → Equisetopsida (land plants) → Leguminosae → Acacia storyi
Sighting data
Species details
- Kingdom
- Plantae (plants)
- Class
- Equisetopsida (land plants)
- Family
- Leguminosae
- Scientific name
- Acacia storyi Tindale
- WildNet taxon ID
- 15702
- Alternate name(s)
- Blackdown wattle
- Nature Conservation Act 1992 (NCA) status
- Near threatened
- Conservation significant
- Yes
- Confidential
- No
- Endemicity
- Native
- Pest status
- Nil
- Short Notes
- BRI 060429
- Description
- Acacia storyi (Story's Wattle) is a shrub or tree growing to 6 m high. The bark is smooth and grey-green in colour. The branchlets are dark purplish red, bluish or purple, glabrous and sometimes pruinose, with inconspicuous ridges. The young foliage tips are cream coloured. The leaves are bipinnate, somewhat leathery, dark green in colour with 8 to 18 pairs of pinnae, 2 to 8 cm long and 3 to 8 mm wide. The basal pinnae pairs often fall off early leaving inconspicuous scars. There are 26 to 92 pairs of pinnules, 1.5 to 4 mm long and 0.4 to 0.8 mm wide, oblong to cultrate in shape, maybe ciliate or glabrous, with a broadly rounded or a somewhat sharp tapering point. The petiole above the pulvinus is 0.8 to 2.3 cm long, sometimes flattened vertically, with 1 to 3 glands. The rachis is 4 to 11 cm long, maybe flattened vertically with an orbicular or oblong glabrous or slightly pubescent gland at the base of all or most pairs of pinnae, with 1 to 4 sometimes touching glands between some or all pairs of pinnae. The inflorescences are in axillary racemes, or terminal or axillary false-panicles. They are cream coloured or pale yellow, with globular heads containing 14 to 20 flowers. The seed pods are 2.5 to 11 cm long and 8 to 12 mm wide, coriaceous, dark red-brown or blue-black, glabrous and sometimes pruinose. The pods are straight-sided to slightly or irregularly more deeply constricted between the seeds. The seeds are about 6 mm long by 3.5 mm wide. (Pedley, 1979; Maslin, 2001).
Acacia storyi is closely related to A. filicifolia which also has fern-like leaves, fine, narrow, closely spaced pinnules, numerous interjugary glands on the rachises, and pruinose, glabrous, broad, rather flat seed pods. It differs from A. filicifolia in being mostly hairless, having shorter pinnules and cream coloured or pale yellow inflorescences (Maslin, 2001). - Distribution
- Most of the populations of Acacia storyi occur on the Blackdown Tableland (Blackdown Tablelands NP). Three populations occur just outside of the park in Rockland Spring, SSE of Blackwater township and upper Davy Creek at the footslopes of Expedition Range, 30 km NE of Woorabinda (Queensland Herbarium, 2011). There is also one tree recorded on Curtis Island, however recent information confirms that this has been misidentified (DPPI, 2000; Australia Pacific, 2010)
- Distributional limits
- -23.7400899, 149.0094289
-23.9730556, 149.1816667 - Range derivation
- Range derived from extent of the taxon's verified records
- Habitat
- The species grows on sandstone plateaux, on sandy and shallow skeletal soils over sandstone. Vegetation includes open forests or tall open forest. Associated species include Eucalyptus tereticornis and Aristida spp.; E. hendersonii, E. cloeziana, E. melanoleuca and E. propinqua. There is limited information on the status of individual populations. The species was considered occasional in two populations from Blackdown Tablelands NP (Pedley, 1987; Queensland Herbarium, 2011).
- Reproduction
- Little is known on the biology and ecology of A. storyi. Flowering specimens have been collected in April to September and maturing pods in August to December (Pedley, 1987; Maslin, 2001; Queensland Herbarium, 2011).
- Threatening processes
- Research is needed to identify the threats to A. storyi. The majority of the known populations are protected within Blackdown NP. However, the species range is very restricted, so it is likely to be susceptible to elimination by stochastic events. Too frequent fire may deplete the soil seed bank (DSEWPC, 2008). Disturbance of habitat by timber harvesting and clearing are considered to be threats for populations outside of National Park. Inappropriate grazing and fire regimes are considered to be threats to al populations (Henderson, 1976: Barker, 1996; Pedley, 1987).
- Status notes
- Acacia storyi is listed as Near Threatened under Queensland's Nature Conservation Act 1992
- Management documents
- Barker M (1996). Acacia storyi Species Management Profile, Department of Natural Resources, Queensland.
- Management recommendations
- Barker (1996) described some management recommendations for the protection of A. storyi and its habitat which included: a protective buffer around A. storyi of at least 0.3 ha) that excludes timber harvesting and clearing; recommended intervals between prescribed burns; and monitor and the impact of grazing and adjust grazing management accordingly.
- Notes
- Occurs in the following Queensland pastoral districts: Leichhardt and Port Curtis (Bostock and Holland 2010).
- References
- Australia Pacific LNG Project (2010). Volume 5: Attachments, Attachment 16: Terrestrial Ecology LNG Facility.
Barker, M. (1996). Acacia storyi Species Management Profile, Department of Natural Resources, Queensland.
Bostock, P.D. and Holland, A.E. (eds) (2010). Census of the Queensland Flora 2010. Queensland Herbarium, Department of Environment and Resource Management, Brisbane.
Henderson, R.J.F. (1976). History and floristics of the Blackdown Tableland, central Queensland. Queensland Naturalist.
Pedley, L. (1979). A revision of Acacia Mill. In Queensland. Austrobaileya 1 (3): 304.
Pedley, L. (1987). Acacias in Queensland. Queensland Herbarium, Queensland Department of Primary Industries.
Queensland Department of Planning and Infrastructure (DPPI) (2009). Curtis Island Environmental Precinct Ecology Environmental and Heritage Study.
Queensland Herbarium (2011). Specimen label information. Queensland Herbarium. Accessed 4/11/2011.
Queensland Herbarium (2012). Specimen label information. Queensland Herbarium. Accessed 21/10/2011.
Tindale, M.D. and Kodela, P.G. (1999). Acacia storyi. 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=15702.
This information is sourced from the WildNet database managed by the Queensland Department of Environment and Science.
