Plants of
South Australia
Acacia imbricata
Fabaceae
Imbricate Wattle,
Feathery Wattle
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Regional Species Conservation Assessments per IBRA subregion.
Least concern
Near threatened
Rare
Vulnerable
Endangered
Critically endangered
Extinct
Data deficient
Adelaide
Arkaroola
Ceduna
Coober Pedy
Hawker
Innamincka
Marla
Marree
Mount Gambier
Oodnadatta
Renmark
Wudinna
Keith
Yunta
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Botanical art

Kath Alcock paintings: 2

Common names

Imbricate Wattle

Feathery Wattle

Etymology

Acacia from the Greek 'akakia' and derived from 'ake' or 'akis' meaning a sharp point or thorn and 'akazo' meaning to sharpen. Dioscorides, the Greek physician and botanist used the word in the 1st century AD for the Egyptian thorn tree, Acacia arabica. Imbricata from the Latin 'imbrex' meaning covered with tiles or scales, referring to the overlapping phyllodes.

Distribution and status

Endemic to South Australia and restricted to southern Eyre Peninsula, growing in open forest, woodland or open scrub vegetation in mainly hard acidic, neutral and sandy alkaline yellow duplex. Native. Rare in South Australia.
Herbarium region: Eyre Peninsula
NRM region: Eyre Peninsula
AVH map: SA distribution map (external link)

Plant description

Dense, spreading, glabrous shrubs to 2 m high with numerous thin, ascending and somewhat willowy branches marked with numerous raised leaf bases. Leaves linear-oblong to 16 mm long and 2 mm, broad, flat erect, crowded, imbricate, glabrous. Inflorescences simple and axillary, solitary or twin with globular, bright yellow flower-heads. Flowering between July and September. Fruits are long, straight or slightly curved, light brown pod. Seeds are hard, dark brown to black, ovoid to elliptical seed to 5 mm long and 3 mm wide. Seed embryo type is investing.

Seed collection and propagation

Collect seeds between November and December. Collect mature pods that are turning brown, with hard, dark seeds inside. Place the pods in a tray and leave to dry for 1-2 weeks or until the pods begin to split. Then rub the dried pods to dislodge the seeds. Use a sieve to separate any unwanted material. Store the seeds with a desiccant such as dried silica beads or dry rice, in an air tight container in a cool and dry place. From one collection, the seed viability was high, at 100%. This species has physical dormancy that needs to be overcome for the seed to germinate (e.g. nicking or softening the seed coat).

Seeds stored:
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LocationNo. of seeds
(weight grams)
Number
of plants
Date
collected
Collection number
Collection location
Date
stored
% ViabilityStorage
temperature
BGA 
MSB
21,100 (211 g)
21,500 (215 g)
100+7-Dec-2004DJD69
Eyre Peninsula
31-Mar-2006100%-18°C
Location: BGA — the seeds are stored at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, MSB — the seeds are stored at the Millennium Seed Bank, Kew, England.
Number of plants: This is the number of plants from which the seeds were collected.
Collection location: The Herbarium of South Australia's region name.
% Viability: Percentage of filled healthy seeds determined by a cut test or x-ray.