Martin V. (1974) Dye-making with Australian flora. (Rigby, Adelaide).
Webb C.J. Sykes W.R. & Garnock-Jones P.J. (1988) Flora of New Zealand. Vol. 4. (Botany Division, DSIR, Christchurch, New Zealand).
Species distribution
The phytogeography (distribution) of Acacia species in Western Australia was presented by Hopper & Maslin (1978). The paper should be referred to for full details which are only partly relevant to South Australia. They demonstrate extreme species richness on the inland eastern margin of the South-West Botanical Province. Minor centres were found in the Pilbara, Desert and Northern Botanical Provinces. Approximately 80% of the 500 species occurring in Western Australia are confined to that area.
Further studies on the distribution of Acacia in Western Australia have been mapped by Hnatiuk & Maslin (1980), Hnatiuk, Maslin & D' Antuona (1983) and for Australia by Maslin & Pedley (1982). These accounts include some or most of the species in South Australia and are a major source of information.
In an analysis of Acacia distribution in arid Central Australia, which includes at least half of South Australia, Maslin & Hopper (1982) mapped the distribution of the principal sections covering 118 species. In addition they list and give information in tabular form of about 35 species that are confined (or nearly so) to the area. The origins of the Central Australian Acacia are geographically diverse. The maps show that Section Lycopodiifoliae (not in South Australia) and Section Juliflorae have their strongholds in the northern and more tropical areas of Australia while Sections Phyllodinae and Plurinervae are more generally spread. They conclude that Central Australia is only a minor centre of species richness and that the region has a predominance of species with tropical affinities. They point out that 95 of the 118 Central Australian species have recognisable close relatives and variants which suggests that many of the extant taxa had their origins in the recent geological past. A full list of species with their affinities and distribution is given in tabular form.
The geographic patterns in the distribution of Australian Acacia as a whole have been published by Hnatiuk & Maslin (1988). Six maps give the distribution of the nine sections. The highest density of species occurs in the south-west of Western Australia with 42% of Australian species, 66% of which are endemic. The second area of richness is along the Great Dividing Range in eastern Australia. There are a number of secondary centres in the north and north-east of Australia, and rocky tablelands in the Arid Zone and in western Victoria. The section Juliflorae is distinctly tropical in distribution, while the section Phyllodineae tends to be temperate south-western and south-eastern. The Pulchellae are essentially western Australian and the Botrycephalae essentially south-eastern Australian. The general patterns of species richness of Eucalyptus had some similarities with those of Acacia but also distinct differences.
The patterns of distribution of the three subgenera and nine sections of the genus are discussed by Maslin & Pedley (1988) in greater detail using the maps in Hnatiuk & Maslin (1988).