Acacia ayersiana Maconochie, J. Adelaide Bot. Gard . 1: 182 (1978)
Tree to 5 m tall, with blue-grey foliage. Branchlets with dense white appressed pubescent between red-brown resinous ribs; red-glandular hairs on young growth. Phyllodes broad lanceolate, straight or curved, 2.5–8.5 cm long, 3–10 mm wide, attenuate at apex, with longitudinal nerves thick, the yellowish, marginal nerve prominent. Inflorescences single in axils; peduncles 4–8 mm long; spikes 10–30 mm long. Flowers 5-merous; sepals 0.5–0.8 mm long, free or united in short tube, with long hyaline hairs; corolla 1.3–1.7 mm, rarely to 2 mm, long, occasionally with appressed hairs on lobes; stamens 3–4 mm long; ovary with dense white longish appressed hairs. Pods shortly stipitate, oblong, straight, to 3.5 cm long, 7–12 mm wide, including wings 1–2 mm wide, chartaceous, brown, reticulately nerved, sparsely appressed-pubescent, dehiscent. Seeds transverse, oblong, to 6 cm long, 3 mm wide; aril small, terminal, oblique, pileate, white.
Wide ranging from W.A. to southern parts of N.T. and S.A., usually on sandy soils often in swales of dunes.
Closely related to A. aneura var. major , but distinguished by its phyllodes that have prominent marginal nerves, that are long-attenuate at the apex (which is sometimes hooked), its calyx with long hairs and its ovary with rather long hairs. Intergrades with several varieties of A. aneura and with A. minyura which commonly occur over wide areas of eastern W.A. and western S.A. and western N.T. These taxa have narrower, sometimes strongly curved phyllodes that usually have prominent marginal nerves.
A variant that may be a stable intergrade between A. aneura and A. ayersiana occurs in dune swales in the Gibson and Great Victoria Deserts. It has been well-collected N of Ooldea, S.A. It is a tree to 14 m tall with phyllodes 5–13 cm long and 3–4.5 mm wide. Its flowers resemble those of A. ayersiana , but it has narrower winged pods (not seen mature). Representative specimens: Gibson Desert, W.A., 67 km SSE of Clutterbuck Hills, W.A., S.D.Hopper 2906B (PERTH); Vokes Corner, S.A., N.N.Donner 7321 (AD).
Type of accepted name
Ayers Rock, N.T., 19 Oct. 1973, J.R.Maconochie 1930 ; holo: NT n.v. ; iso: AD, BRI, DNA, NSW, PERTH.
Acacia aneura var. ayersiana (Maconochie) Pedley, Austral. Syst. Bot . 5: 768 (1992). Type: as for accepted name.
Acacia aneura var. latifolia J.M.Black, Trans. & Proc. Roy. Soc. S. Australia 47: 370 (1923); A. ayersiana var. latifolia (J.M.Black) Randell, J. Adelaide Bot. Gard . 14: 24 (1992); Type: Ooldea, S.A., Aug. 1918, Dr C[ameron], herb. R.Tate ; lecto: AD, fide L.Pedley (to be published in Appendix to Fl. Australia vol. 11, 2001) non B.R.Randell, loc. cit .
W.A.: 38 miles [61 km] E of Mount Magnet, B.A.Barlow 343 (AD); 13.3 km E of Wiluna, B.R.Maslin 5594 (PERTH). N.T.: 19 miles [30 km] W of ‘Curtin Springs’, M.Lazarides 6177 (BRI, CANB). S.A.: S of Musgrave Ranges, Mt Wood-Mt Harriet, 30 Sept. 1955, S.A. Pastoral Board (AD); Flinders Ranges, 3024’S 13912’E, L.D.WIlliams 11537 (AD).