Acacia dunnii Turrill, Fabaceae

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Present on Pacific Islands?  no

Threat only at high elevations?  no

Common name(s): [more details]

English: Dunn's wattle, elephant-ear wattle

Habit:  tree

Description:  "Pruinose shrub or tree to 6 m high.  Branchlets terete, glabrous.  Phyllodes inequilaterally elliptic to ovate, shallowly falcate, 12-42 cm long, 6-17.5 cm wide, very unequal at base, 2-4 times crenate on upper margin, obtuse, coriaceous, glabrous, with 4 or 5 prominent longitudinal nerves confluent with lower margin at base, closely reticulate between main nerves.  Inflorescences in terminal or axillary panicles 11-50 cm long; peduncles 8-20 mm long, single or fascicled, glabrous; heads globular, 6-8 mm diameter, 50-85-flowered, golden.  Flowers 5-merous; sepals 1/4-1/2-united.  Pods narrowly oblong, straight, to 17 cm long, 2-4 cm wide, subwoody, coarsely reticulate.  Seeds transverse, broadly elliptic to oblong-elliptic, 9-12 mm long, subnitid, brown with brown-black periphery; aril apical"  (Orchard & Wilson, 2001; p. 152).

Habitat/ecology:  In Australia, "grows in gravelly soil, often on rocky slopes" (Orchard & Wilson, 2001; p. 152).

Propagation:  Seed

Native range:  North-western Australia lowlands in Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Also recorded from some islands near the Kimberley coast. (Orchard & Wilson, 2001; p. 152).

Presence:

Pacific Rim
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Australia Australia (continental)	Australia (continental)	native	Orchard, Anthony E./Wilson, Annette J. G. (2001) (p. 152) Northern Territory and Western Australia
Australia Australia (continental)	Northern Territory	introduced invasive cultivated	Orchard, Anthony E./Wilson, Annette J. G. (2001) (p. 152) Becoming established where not native. Naturalized

Comments:  "Widely cultivated with occasional escapees becoming established in the Northern Territory [Australia]" (Orchard & Wilson, 2001; p. 152).

Additional information:  Additional online information about Acacia dunnii is available from the Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk project (HEAR).

Taxonomic information about Acacia dunnii may be available from the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN).

References:

ILDIS Co-ordinating Centre. 2005. International Legume Database & Information Service. Online searchable database.

Orchard, Anthony E./Wilson, Annette J. G. 2001. Flora of Australia Volume 11B, Mimosaceae, Acacia part 2. ABRS, Canberra/CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne. 536 pp.

Smith, Nicholas M. 2002. Weeds of the wet/dry tropics of Australia - a field guide. Environment Centre NT, Inc. 112 pp.