Page Sixteen 
THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST 
attempt has been made to modify it for field 
use in the Adelaide Hills area. In using such 
a key, involving only macroscopical features, 
it should be borne in mind that occasional 
plants, by reason of individual variation with 
site, etc., will not work in with it. On the 
grounds that these are few in number, and, 
from the point of view of the casual natu- 
ralist, unimportant, such varietal forms have 
— with one exception — been ignored. Only 
Acacia Victoriae appears in more than one 
part of the key. Other variable species, 
principally Acacia longi folia, A. continua . 
and A. ligulata . are adequately covered in 
all their varietal forms, by Black’s key. As 
usual, the common names given may be 
applied to different species in other States, 
or even in different parts of this State. 
FEATHER-LEAF WATTLES 
( Bipinnatae ) 
I\o species belonging to this group occur 
naturally in the Adelaide Hills. 
PHYLLODINOUS WATTLES 
( Phyllodineae ) 
The phyllodinous Acacias, for our pur- 
poses, can be split up into two major groups 
and several distinct sub-groups. 
The two major groups are — 
(1) Those with their flowers in spikes, 
and (2) Those with their flowers in globular 
heads. 
A wattle flower, as commonly meant, is 
really a collection of flowers, each of which 
is a distinct unit, complete with sepals, petals, 
stamens and pistil. In most of our Acacias 
the individual flowers of this collection, or 
HEAD, are grouped so closely as to appear, 
in aggregate, the familiar fluffy ball. When 
the flowers are so grouped, they are said to 
be GLOBULAR (i.e., globe-shaped) HEADS. 
Some, however, bear their flowers at inter- 
vals along a common stalk, to which the 
individual flowers are directly attached 
without individual stalks. When arranged in 
this way, the flowers are said to be in 
SPIKES. These are not to be confused 
with the racemes borne by some wattles, 
in which the globular heads (not the in- 
dividual flowers) are borne on a common 
stalk. 
There are only two Adelaide Hills Acacias 
which bear their flowers in spikes. These 
are the “Prickly Moses” ( Acacia vcrticillata ) 
and the “Sallow Wattle” or “Sallow Acacia” 
May 9, 1950. 
( Acacia longifolia) . These are readily dis- 
tinguished. The leaves of the “Prickly 
Moses” are fine and awl-shaped, and are 
feet in whorls or rings at intervals around 
the stem, whereas those of the “Sallow' 
Acacia ’ are thick and leathery, are promi- 
nently nerved, and are alternate on the stem. 
I here are fifteen Acacias which bear their 
flowers in globular heads in the Adelaide 
Hills area. These can be divided up into 
(1) Plants with no phyllodes, or with 
phyllodes reduced to spines. 
( 2 ) Plants with phyllodes having three or 
more longitudinal nerves. 
(3) Plants with phyllodes having two 
longitudinal nerves. 
(4) Plants with phyllodes having only one 
longitudinal nerve. 
The Adelaide Hills area has two wattles 
whose phyllodes are reduced to spines, viz. 
Acacia continua and Acacia spinescens. Actu- 
ally only the spines of Acacia continua are 
reduced phyllodes, those of Acacia spinescens 
being strictly reduced branchlets, phyllodes 
being entirely absent. 
These two species are distinguished by the 
manner in w'hich the spines are attached to 
the stem, and by the mode of bearing flowers. 
In Acacia continua , as is suggested by the 
name, the bases of the spines run into the 
general stem tissue, i.e. are continuous with 
it. The spines of Acacia spinescens , how- 
ever, are articulate, i.e. they appear to have 
been jointed on to the stem. This species 
sometimes bears pinnate leaves and/or phyl- 
lodes on the spines. The other difference 
is that the flower heads of Acacia continua , 
are borne in the axils between spines and 
stem, while those of Acacia spinescens are 
borne along the spines themselves. 
Of the group PLURINERVES, with three 
or more nerves to each phyllode, the Adelaide 
Hills have only one species — the Blackwood 
( Acacia melanoxylon) . It has very pale 
flowers and a thick, furrowed, much cracked 
bark. The Blackwood seldom exceeds 25 
feet in the Adelaide Hills, but is an important 
timber tree in the eastern States and Tas- 
mania. 
Black places the sole South Australian 
w'attle with 2-nerved phyllodes ( Acacia verni - 
ciflua) in the single-nerved group. It some- 
times does have single-nerved phyllodes, but 
1 have not vet seen a specimen in the A,de- 
