Southern Ironwood, Ironwood.

Graceful glabrous tree 4–16 m high. Branchlets pendulous (mature plants). Phyllodes linear to very narrowly elliptic, straight to slightly curved, often slightly kinked at the gland, 4–11 cm long, 2–5 mm wide, l: w ratio = 16–40, acute to short-acuminate, thinly coriaceous, pale green, glabrous, with 3 or 4 main veins and sometimes sparsely anastomosing minor veins in between; gland 4–10 mm above pulvinus. Inflorescences simple or rudimentary 1- or 2-headed racemes with axes to 1 mm long, 1 or 2 per axil; peduncles 5–12 mm long; basal bract persistent; heads globular, 4–5 mm diam., densely 30–35-flowered, creamy to pale yellow. Flowers 5-merous; sepals free. Pods flat, breaking readily at constrictions between seeds, to 10 cm long, 5–7 mm wide, firmly chartaceous, reticulate, narrowly winged. Seeds longitudinal, oblong-elliptic, c. 5.5 mm long, dull, brown, exarillate.

Native.

Common in southern Northern Territory, extending into Western Australia near Giles (with an outlier on Granite peak Stn c. 300 km NE of Meekatharra), to north-western South Australia near Lake Eyre. Erroneously recorded for Queensland by B.R. Maslin & L. Pedley, Western Australian Herbarium Research Notes 6: 44 (1982), based on a misidentification of a W.J. Gasteen collection of A. oswaldii (see L. Pedley, Austrobaileya 1: 343 (1981)).

Grows commonly on sandy alluvial flats as scattered trees, but also in tall open shrubland and open woodland.

Details of ecology, utilisation, etc. are given in D.J. Boland et al., Forest Trees of Australia 5th edn, 156–157 (2006).

W.A.: 5 km SE of Giles Meteorological Station, A.S. George 12114 (PERTH); 3 km NW of Granite Peak Homestead, July 1999, R. & B. McLennan (PERTH).

N.T.: 1.6 km E of Alice Springs, R.A. Perry 3229 (K, NSW, PERTH).

S.A.: 48 km NW of Kenmore Park Station near Ernabella, D.E. Symon 2702 (K, PERTH).

Bark from branches, root bark and gum is used traditionally by Northern Territory Aboriginal people for various skin disorders, upper respiratory tract infections and gastro-intestinal discomfort, according to Aboriginal Communities of the Northern Territory (1993), Traditional Aboriginal Medicines in the Northern Territory of Australia 12–13 (Conservation Commission of the Northern Territory of Australia, Darwin).

Acacia estrophiolata F.Muell., Southern Science Record 2(7): 150 (1882); Racosperma estrophiolatum (F.Muell.) Pedley, Austrobaileya 2(4): 348 (1987). Type: "Near the Finke-River; Rev. H. Kempe"; holo: Finke River, N.T., H. Kempe s.n.; MEL; iso: NSW, PERTH.

There are obvious morphological differences between young and mature plants of this species. The young plants have rigid branchlets and short, straight, patent to erect phyllodes which are normally in nodose clusters; on mature plants the ultimate branchlets are lax and pendulous and the phyllodes are longer and not clustered. Acacia estrophiolata is closely related to A. excelsa but differing (perhaps arbitrarily) in phyllode proportions. Because of its narrow, 3-veined phyllodes A. excelsa subsp. angusta is especially similar to A. estrophiolata, but besides being geographically separated, the subspecies appears to lack the slightly kinked phyllodes that often occur on A. estrophiolata. Acacia estrophiolata is perhaps distantly related to A. dolichophylla which has much longer phyllodes with prominently raised veins; for more details see B.R. Maslin, Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Garden 2: 308 (1980).

K. Askew & A.S. Mitchell, Fodder Trees & Shrubs of the Northern Territory 17 (1978); B.R. Maslin, in J.P. Jessop (ed.), Flora of Central Australia 123, fig. 160E (1980); D.J.E. Whibley, in J.P. Jessop & H.R. Toelken (eds), Flora of South Australia 4th edn, 2: 535, fig. 263B (1986); D.J.E. Whibley & D.E. Symon, Acacias of South Australia 2nd edn, 187 (1992); D. Greig, A Photographic Guide to Trees of Australia 113 (1998); D.J. Boland et al., Forest Trees of Australia 5th edn, 157 (2006); F. Kutsche et al., Field Guide to the Plants of Outback South Australia 2nd edn: 18 (2023).

Greig, D. (1998). A Photographic Guide to Trees of Australia. (New Holland: Sydney).

Kutsche, F., Lay, B., Croft, T. & Kellermann, J. (2023). Field Guide to the Plants of Outback South Australia 2nd revised edn. (State Herbarium of South Australia: Adelaide).

Pedley, L. (1981). Further notes on Acacia in Queensland. Austrobaileya 1(4): 339–345.

Whibley, D.J.E. (1986). Mimosoideae, pp. 511–569, in J.P. Jessop & H.R. Toelken (eds), Flora of South Australia, Part II Leguminosae–Rubiaceae. 4th edn. Handbook of the Flora & Fauna of South Australia. (South Australian Government Printing Division: Adelaide).

Data derived from Flora of Australia Volumes 11A (2001), 11B (2001) and 12 (1998), products of ABRS, ©Commonwealth of Australia