Acacia colei, commonly known as Cole's wattle, kalkardi, candelabra wattle or soap wattle,
The species is endemic to northern Australia and is adapted to a dry environment. Its seeds are edible.
Description
Acacia colei is a spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of , sometimes a tree to . Its new shoots are covered with silky, pale yellow-brown hairs that soon age to silvery. The branchlets are covered with silvery, silky hairs. The
are ascending, narrowly elliptic and more or less straight, long, wide, and often shallowly turned down at tip.
The flowers are borne in two spikes in axils on peduncles long, each spike long with golden yellow flowers. Flowering occurs from May to September, and the pods are curved or coiled depending on subspecies, thinly leathery to crust-like, wide. The seeds are oblong, glossy, very dark brown to black with a bright yellow aril.
Taxonomy
Acacia colei was first formally described in 1992 by
Bruce Maslin and Lex Thomson in the journal
Australian Systematic Botany from specimens collected in the Broome townsite in 1991.
The
specific epithet (
colei) honours the
CSIRO seed collector, Mr E.G. (Jerry) Cole, "who assisted in extensive botanical and seed collections of
A. colei in 1984".
In 1997, Maurice W. McDonald and Bruce Maslin described var. ileocarpa, and its name and that of the autonym are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:
-
Acacia colei Maslin & L.A.J.Thomson var. colei (the autonym)
-
Acacia colei var. ileocarpa M.W.McDonald & Maslin
Distribution and habitat
Cole's wattle 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.
Variety ileocarpa has a scattered distribution in the southern Kimberley region and adjacent parts of western Northern Territory, and a restricted distribution in the Pilbara region.
Uses
Its uses include environmental management, forage, and wood.[ International Legume Database & Information Service (ILDIS)] The seeds have a good taste[ ECHO Education Concerns for Hunger Organization] and can be eaten raw, cooked, or ground into flour.[
]
Chemistry
There are some recent reports that up to 1.8% dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is present in the bark of Acacia colei.[ Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, ABC Radio 2005. ;
https://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/stn/q&a/notes/051027-9.htm]
In culture
The Walmadjari people in the Kimberley call this wattle, parta,
See also
External links
