Species profile—Acacia gittinsii

Classification

Plantae (plants) → Equisetopsida (land plants) → Leguminosae → Acacia gittinsii

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Species details

Kingdom

Plantae (plants)

Class

Equisetopsida (land plants)

Family

Leguminosae

Scientific name

Acacia gittinsii Pedley

WildNet taxon ID

15749

Alternate name(s)

Gittin's wattle

Nature Conservation Act 1992 (NCA) status

Least concern

Conservation significant

No

Confidential

No

Endemicity

Native

Pest status

Nil

Short Notes

BRI 030806, status annotated by author

Description

Acacia gittinsii is a graceful shrub that grows 1 to 2 m high. The branchlets are pilose with white hairs. The phyllodes are crowded, glabrous or sometimes with long white hairs with a small mucro (Pedley, 1979). The adult foliage is comprised of long and narrow phyllodes that are 1 to 3 cm long and 0.6 to 1.2 mm wide. The gland is normally absent Maslin, 2001). The inflorescences occur in 6 to 15-headed racemes, which are 2 to 5 cm long. Each raceme may have a cluster of up to 20 golden flowers, which are 4 to 5 mm in diameter. The peduncles are slender and sparsely to moderately hairy. Seedpods have only been seen in the immature state and as old dehisced valves. They are subglaucous, glabrous to subglabrous, probably with longitudinal seeds (Pedley, 1979; Maslin, 2001).
A. gittinsii is very similar to A. ruppii. and Kodela and Tindale (2001) suggest that A. gittinsii is better treated as a subspecies of A. ruppii. The main differing features are shrub height (A. ruppii 0.5 to 3 m); phyllodes and inflorescence (A. ruppii 1 to 7 headed, 25 to 50 flowered). The phyllodes of A. gittinsii may also resemble A. burbidgeae, however the latter species is readily distinguished by its non-racemose inflorescences (Maslin, 2001).

Distribution

Acacia gittinsii is known from approximately 45 populations in central Queensland (Bostock and Holland, 2010), this includes 48-70 km WSW of Duaringa Township, 7-80 km south to SE of Rolleston and 70-100 km NW of Taroom. Locations include Blackdown Tableland National Park; Shotover State Forest; Dawson Range State Forest Expedition State Forest; Serocold State Forest Expedition National Park; Glenhaughton State Forest; Theodore State Forest, Presho Forest Reserve and Mimosa Park National Reserve. Herbarium specimens record A. gittinsii as locally common at most sites often with mature plants and seedlings. In the southern population within Mimosa Park, there was a thick patch covering at least 10 hectares, and an estimated 50, 000 or more plants (Queensland Herbarium, 2011). In Glenhaughton State Forest and pastoral holdings south of Rolleston the plant was rare (Queensland Herbarium, 2011).

Distributional limits

-23.7484233, 148.4261184
-25.3734212, 149.5594333

Range derivation

Range derived from extent of the taxon's verified records

Habitat

Acacia gittinsii grows in sandy to sandy-loam soils in Eucalyptus woodland, and is common in wetter areas, although populations have been recorded on ridge tops, and hillslopes. It is most common in the wetter areas of Blackdown Tableland. Acacia gittinsii grows in open forest associated with the following species; Eucalyptus baileyana, E. cloeziana, E. tereticornis, E. chloroclada, Angophora leiocarpa, Corymbia bunites, C. citriodora, C. clarksoniana, Angophora leiocarpa, Lophostemon suaveolens, Alphitonia excelsa, Grevillea spp., and other acacias. The species has also been recorded in spinifex heathland with scattered trees of Angophora leiocarpa, Corymbia bunites, Allocasuarina inophloia, Lysicarpus and Xylomelum (Queensland Herbarium, 2011),

Behaviour

Observations made at Presho, 62 km SW of Theodore (Reedy Creek Holding' SF50) observed numerous dead plants on site, and documented that A. gittinsii appears to be a very short-lived plant, about 1-2 years (Queensland Herbarium, 2011). Given the extensive recruitment observed at many of the sites, A. gittinsii recruitment does not appear to be dependent on fire (Queensland Herbarium, 2011).

Reproduction

Flowering plants have been observed in August and September (Queensland Herbarium, 2011).

Threatening processes

Acacia gittinsii is recorded from only one protected area. Annual burning in late winter/spring to promote grass for cattle grazing has been a management practice in open forest (Barker, 2000). However, long sequences of repeated annual burns have been shown to be detrimental to many Acacia spp. While the effects of fire on A. gittinsii are unknown, it has been suggested that frequent prescribed burns have been detrimental to some species on the Blackdown Tableland (Henderson, 1976). Cattle may represent a threat as they are known to graze Acacia seedlings (Pedley, 1987).

Status notes

Acacia armitii is listed as Least Concern under Queensland's Nature Conservation Act 1992

Management documents

Barker, M. (2000). Acacia gittinsii, in Species Management Manual. Department of Natural Resources, Brisbane

Management recommendations

Barker (2000) outlines protective measures for A. gittinsii and its habitat. In summary adaptive management techniques need to be applied during timber harvesting, the intervals between fire in areas of A. gittinsii should vary from five-30 years to enable information such as minimum age to seed set to be determined and grazing impacts should be monitored an adjusted accordingly (Barker, 2000).

Notes

Occurs in the following Queensland pastoral district: Leichhardt (Bostock and Holland, 2010).

References

Barker, M. (2000). Acacia gittinsii, in Species Management Manual. Department of Natural Resources, Brisbane.
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 21 (5-6): 119-132.
Maslin, B. (1999). Acacia gittinsii. 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): 243-244.
Pedley, L. (1987). Acacias in Queensland. Queensland Herbarium, Queensland Department of Primary Industries.
Queensland Herbarium (2011). Specimen label information. Queensland Herbarium. Accessed 17/10/2011.

Profile author

Lynise Wearne (16/08/2012)

Other resources

• The Australasian Virtual Herbarium (AVH)
• Atlas of Living Australia

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=15749.

This information is sourced from the WildNet database managed by the Queensland Department of Environment and Science.