Acacia colei

Life-forms

Classification System: APG IV

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Regnum: Plantae
Cladus: Angiosperms
Cladus: Eudicots
Cladus: Core eudicots
Cladus: Rosids
Cladus: Eurosids I
Ordo: Fabales

Familia: Fabaceae
Subfamilia: Caesalpinioideae
Tribus: Acacieae
Genus: Acacia
Species: Acacia colei
Varietas: A. c. var. ileocarpa
Name

Acacia colei Maslin & L.A.J.Thomson, 1992
Synonyms

Racosperma colei (Maslin & L.A.J.Thomson) Pedley

Distribution
Native distribution areas:
Acacia colei

Continental: Australasia
Regional: Australia
Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia
Introduced into:
India

References: Brummitt, R.K. 2001. TDWG – World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, 2nd Edition
References
Primary references

Maslin, B.R. & Thomson, L.A.J., 1992. Australian Systematic Botany. East Melbourne, Vic. 5:737.

Links

Govaerts, R. et al. 2020. Acacia colei in Kew Science Plants of the World online. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the internet. Accessed: 2020 Jul 29. Reference page.
International Plant Names Index. 2019. Acacia colei. Published online. Accessed: Jul 29 2019.
Tropicos.org 2019. Acacia colei. Missouri Botanical Garden. Published on the internet. Accessed: 2019 Jul 29.
Hassler, M. Jul. Acacia colei. World Plants: Synonymic Checklists of the Vascular Plants of the World In: Roskovh, Y., Abucay, L., Orrell, T., Nicolson, D., Bailly, N., Kirk, P., Bourgoin, T., DeWalt, R.E., Decock, W., De Wever, A., Nieukerken, E. van, Zarucchi, J. & Penev, L., eds. Jul. Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life. Published on the internet. Accessed: Jul 29 {{{3}}}. Reference page.
USDA, ARS, Germplasm Resources Information Network. Acacia colei in the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service. Accessed: 09-Oct-10.

Vernacular names
English: Cole's Wattle

Acacia colei is a perennial bush or tree native to northern Australia and southern Asia. A common name for it is Cole's wattle. Acacia colei blooms from May through September and the flowers are bright yellow.[2][3]

The Walmajarri people in the Kimberley call this wattle, Parta.[4]
Contents

1 Description
2 Taxonomy
3 Distribution
4 Uses
5 Phytochemistry
6 See also
7 References

Description

The shrub typically grows to a height of 2 to 4 m (6 ft 7 in to 13 ft 1 in) or is found sometimes as a tree up heights of around 9 m (30 ft) usually with a spreading habit. It has sericeous new shoots with pale yellow-brown hairs that age to have a silvery colour. The acutely angled branchlets are silvery-sericeous. The silvery-green to grey-green phyllodes usually have an obliquely narrowly elliptic shape that is more or less straight but often shallowly recurved at the apice. The phyllodes are around 11 to 20 cm (4.3 to 7.9 in) in length and have a width of 1 to 5.5 cm (0.39 to 2.17 in) and have a knob shaped mucro. The rudimentary inflorescences occur in pairs in the racemes and have a axes length of 0.5 mm (0.020 in). The golden flower spikes are 3.5 to 6 cm (1.4 to 2.4 in) in length with hairy petals. The seed pods that form later are openly and strongly curved or tightly and irregularly coiled or twisted with twisted dehisced valves. The glabrous pods have a width of 3.5 to 4 mm (0.14 to 0.16 in) and are thinly coriaceous to crustaceous. The glossy brown to black coloured seeds within the pods have an oblong shape and are 4 to 4.5 mm (0.16 to 0.18 in) in length with a bright yellow aril.[5]
Taxonomy

The species was first formally described by the botanists Bruce Maslin and L.A.J.Thomson in 1992 in the work Re-appraisal of the taxonomy of Acacia holosericea, including the description of a new species, A. colei, and the reinstatement of A. neurocarpa published in the journal Australian Systematic Botany. It was reclassified as Racosperma colei by Leslie Pedley in 2003 then returned to genus Acacia in 2006. The species is commonly confused with Acacia holosericea which it closely resembles.[6]

There are two varieties:

Acacia colei Maslin & L. A. J. Thomson var. colei, known as Cole's wattle.
Acacia colei var. ileocarpa M. W. McDonald & Maslin, known as curly-podded Cole’s wattle.[5]

Distribution

The plant is found throughout northern Australia between latitudes of 16°S and 22°S from the Pilbara and Kimberley regions of Western Australia in the west extending east through the Tanami Desert and Great Sandy Deserts in the Northern Territory and into the Simpson Desert and Gulf Country of western Queensland.[5] It is well adapted to an arid environment and is found in a variety of habitat including stony hills and ridges, sandplains, floodplains and along drainage lines growing in stony, sandy, clay-loam soils.[3]
Uses

Its uses include environmental management, forage and wood.[1] The seeds are good-tasting[7] and are potentially useful as food for humans. The results of tests in Nigeria for the feasibility of raising the tree as a drought-resistant food crop came out very positively.[5]
Phytochemistry

Several recent reports of up to 1.8% dimethyltryptamine in bark.[8]
See also

List of Acacia species

References

International Legume Database & Information Service (ILDIS)
"Australian Biological Resources Study".
"Acacia colei". FloraBase. Western Australian Government Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.
Bessie Doonday; Charmia Samuels; Evelyn (Martha) Clancy; et al. (2013). "Walmajarri plants and animals". Northern Territory Botanical Bulletin. 42: 1–242. Wikidata Q106088428.
"Acacia colei". World Wide Wattle. Western Australian Herbarium. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
"Acacia colei Maslin & L.A.J.Thomson". Atlas of Living Australia. Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
ECHO Archived May 15, 2007, at the Wayback Machine Education Concerns for Hunger Organization
Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, ABC Radio 2005.