1. Magnoliopsida
  2. Fabales
  3. Fabaceae
  4. Acacia

Acacia verticillata (L’Hér.) Willd.

Prickly Moses

Sp. Pl., edn 4, 4: 1049 (1806) APNI

Taxonomic status:Accepted

Occurrence status:Present

Establishment means:Native

Spreading shrub or erect tree, to 10 m high. Phyllodes sessile, acicular-quadrangular, linear or lanceolate, 0.5–2.5 cm long, 0.2–5 mm wide, pungent, mostly glabrous, alternate, fascicled or whorled, rigid, readily disarticulating; vein 1, rarely more; gland small. Inflorescence a spike or ovoid to spherical head, 1–3 per axil, to 2 cm long, cream to yellow; rachis glabrous to woolly; peduncles 2–15 mm long. Flowers 4-merous, usually densely packed; sepals united, pubescent. Pods linear, 2–8 cm long, 3–5 mm wide, compressed, hardly constricted between seeds, valves thin; seeds elliptic, c. 3–4 mm long, funicle filamentous for c. 2 mm and then folded and thickened into an oblique, turbinate aril.

CVU, DunT, EGL, EGU, GipP, Glep, Gold, GGr, HNF, HSF, OtP, OtR, SnM, Strz, VAlp, VVP, WaP, WPro, Wim.

A highly variable species with 4 subspecies, all occur in Victoria. Several of the subspecies have distinct populations within them. Intermediate forms may also be encountered where subspecies are sympatric.   

Source: Entwisle, T.J.; Maslin, B.R.; Cowan, R.S.; Court, A.B. (1996). Mimosaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J. (eds), Flora of Victoria Vol. 3, Dicotyledons Winteraceae to Myrtaceae. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
Updated by: Val Stajsic, 2018-08-27
 
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Distribution map

Victoria

Source: AVH (2014). Australia's Virtual Herbarium, Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria, <http://avh.chah.org.au>. Find Acacia verticillata in AVH ; Victorian Biodiversity Atlas, © The State of Victoria, Department of Environment and Primary Industries (published Dec. 2014) Find Acacia verticillata in Victorian Biodiversity Atlas
  Bioregion Occurrence status Establishment means
Wimmera present native
Glenelg Plain present native
Victorian Volcanic Plain present native
Gippsland Plain present native
Otway Plain present native
Warrnambool Plain present native
Goldfields present native
Central Victorian Uplands present native
Greater Grampians present native
Dundas Tablelands present native
East Gippsland Lowlands present native
East Gippsland Uplands present native
Wilsons Promontory present native
Highlands-Southern Fall present native
Highlands-Northern Fall present native
Otway Ranges present native
Strzelecki Ranges present native
Victorian Alps present native
Snowy Mountains present native
Bioregions of Victoria

State distribution

Distribution map
State
Western Australia
South Australia
New South Wales
Australian Capital Territory
Victoria
Tasmania