Acacia dodonaeifolia Willd. ex Spreng.; sticky wattle

C. Sprengel, Plant. Pugill. 2:92 (1815).

dodonaea-name of a genus in the Sapindaceae; folium (L.)--leaf. 
                                                                              
Syn. Mimosa dodonaeifolia Pets., Syn. Pl. 2:261 (1806); A. viscosa Schrader. ex H.L. Wendl., Comment. Acac. t.7 (1820) nom. illegit.

Tall, viscid shrubs or small trees 2-6 m high, with short thin trunks and long ascending branches; branchlets angular, with somewhat resinous ridges or the entire branch covered with a blackish sooty substance. Phyllodes lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, 4-10 cm long, 4-10 mm broad, flat punctate, quite viscid and sticky when young becoming less viscid when mature, central vein prominent sometimes with 2 additional fainter intermarginal veins into which finer lateral veins ran, apex acute, with a short straight or recurved point; glands small 1--4 scattered at various intervals along the upper margin, lnflorescences axillary, mostly twin, sometimes on a very short common peduncle; flower-heads globular bright yellow 30-40-flowered; peduncles glabrous viscid 10-15 mm long; flowers 5-merous. Legumes linear straight or curved 6-10 cm long, 5-6 mm broad, light brown, raised, over the seeds; margins not constricted. Seeds longitudinal in legume obloid-ovoid, dark brown shiny; funicle short, folded under the cup-shaped aril.

Flowering time. July-November.

Occurrence. Endemic to South Australia. The two main areas are Eyre Peninsula (southern part) and Southern Lofty regions. A minor occurrence on Yorke Peninsula (southern part), Kangaroo Island and a few scattered localities in the South-Eastern region, mainly in woodland open forest vegetation formation. Soils; hard acidic, yellow duplex, red shallow porous loamy, sandy alkaline yellow duplex. Rainfall 500-700 mm.

Cultivation. A useful tall shrub for ornamental planting in higher rainfall areas throughout the southern districts. Has also been used as a hedge plant. Fast growth rate.

Conservation status. Lang & Kraehenbuehl (1987) and Briggs & Leigh (1988) both consider this species to be Uncommon to Rare.

Note. The most common mistletoe on Acacia dodonaeifolia is Amyema preissii, wire-leaved mistletoe with two records of Lysiana exocarpi, harlequin mistletoe.

Hybrids between A. dodonaeifolia and A. paradoxa occur almost wherever the distribution of the two species overlap.

Related species. Acacia leprosa occurring in Vic. and N.S.W. has similar features and habit. Acacia vernicifiua (sp. 64) is very similar in habit and is difficult to distinguish, unless a closer examination is made to reveal its two prominent veins on its phyllodes. Acacia stricta has some similarities but differs in not being a resinous shrub and usually has more flowers in the phyllode axils on shorter peduncles. Possible hyhrids have been recorded between A. dodonaeifolia and A. paradoxa (sp. 8) from southern Eyre Peninsula, see under this species for further details.

(Source: Whibley & Symon 1992)