| Ear-pod wattle | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Fabales |
| Family: | Fabaceae |
| Subfamily: | Caesalpinioideae |
| Clade: | Mimosoid clade |
| Genus: | Acacia |
| Species: | A. auriculiformis |
| Binomial name | |
| Acacia auriculiformis | |
| Synonyms[2] | |
| |
Acacia auriculiformis, commonly known asear-pod wattle,northern black wattle orDarwin black wattle,[3][4][5] is a species of flowering plant in the familyFabaceae and isnative toMaluku,New Guinea, theNorthern Territory andQueensland.[6] It is a tree with smooth bark, very narrowly ellipticphyllodes, spikes of bright yellow to golden-yellow flowers, and strongly curved to spirally coiled, leathery to woodypods up to 80 mm (3.1 in) long.
Acacia auriculiformis is a tree that typically grows to 8–10 m (26–33 ft) high, rarely up to 35 m (115 ft), and is mostlyglabrous, with smooth bark or fissured bark on older trees, and thin branchlets. The phyllodes are very narrowly elliptic, sometimes curved, mostly 100–200 mm (3.9–7.9 in) long and 12–40 mm (0.47–1.57 in) wide with many longitudinal veins, three to five more prominent than the rest. The flowers are bright yellow to golden-yellow, arranged in one to several spikes in leaf axils, each spike 50–85 mm (2.0–3.3 in) long on apeduncle 4–8 mm (0.16–0.31 in) long. Flowering occurs from February to August, and the fruit is a strongly curved or spirally coiled, sometimes twisted, thickly leathery to woody pod about 50–80 mm (2.0–3.1 in) long and 10–18 mm (0.39–0.71 in) wide, containing flattened, dark brown to black seeds 4–6 mm (0.16–0.24 in) long and 3–4 mm (0.12–0.16 in) wide with an orange, yellow or redaril.[3][4][7]
Acacia auriculiformis was first formally described in 1842 byGeorge Bentham inHooker'sLondon Journal of Botany, from an unpublished description byAllan Cunningham.[8][9] Thespecific epithet (auriculiformis) means 'ear shaped', referring to the pods.[3]
Ear-pod wattle grows in sandy or loamy soils near watercourses and swamps in open forest onCape York Peninsula in Queensland, the north of the Northern Territory, theCentral andWestern Provinces of New Guinea, and theKei Islands of Indonesia. It is also recorded asnaturalised in Western Australia.[3][4][7]
Extracts ofAcacia auriculiformisheartwood inhibit fungi that attack wood.[10] Aqueous extracts ofA. auriculiformis show developmental inhibitory effects onBactrocera cucurbitae (the melon fly).[11]
