Acacia binervia
{{Short description|Species of plant}}
{{Speciesbox
|name= Coast myall
|image= Acacia binervia.jpg
|genus = Acacia
|species = binervia
|authority = (J.C.Wendl.) J.F.Macbr.{{cite web |title=Acacia binervia |url=https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/apc-format/display/59466 |publisher=Australian Plant Census |access-date=28 January 2025}}
|range_map = Acacia binerviaDistMap117.png
|range_map_caption = Occurrence data from AVH
}}
File:Acacia binervia trunk.jpg]]
Acacia binervia commonly known as the coast myall, coastal myall, coastal wattle, or kai'arrawan in the Dharawal language.{{NSW Flora Online|author =P.G. Kodela|genus=Acacia|species=binervia}} is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to south-eastern continental Australia. It is an erect or spreading tree or shrub, with narrowly elliptic to sickle-shaped phyllodes, pale to bright yellow flowers arranged in cylindrical heads in up to five racemes, and straight pods up to {{cvt|85|mm}} long.
Description
Acacia binervia is an erect tree or spreading shrub that typically grows up to {{cvt|16|m}} high and has flaky and furrowed, dark brown to grey bark. Its phyllodes are narrowly elliptic to sickle-shaped, {{cvt|60–150|mm}} long, {{cvt|5–23|mm}} wide, with branchlets flattened or angled at the end, prominently veined and usually covered thickly with whitish grey hairs flattened against the surface. The flowers are pale to bright yellow and borne in rod-shaped heads {{cvt|20–60|mm}} long in up to five axils in a raceme {{cvt|1–10|mm}} long. Each head is on a peduncle up to {{cvt|5|mm}} long. Flowering occurs in spring and the fruit is a linear pod, {{cvt|20–85|mm}} long and {{cvt|3-5|mm}} wide.{{cite web |last1=Kodela |first1=Phillip G. |last2=Tindale |first2=Mary D. |editor-last1=Kodela |editor-first1=Phillip G. |title=Acacia binervia |url=https://profiles.ala.org.au/opus/foa/profile/Acacia%20binervia |publisher=Flora of Australia. Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water: Canberra. |access-date=19 April 2025}}{{cite web |last1=Entwisle |first1=Timothy J. |last2=Maslin |first2=Bruce R. |last3=Cowan |first3=Richard S. |last4=Court |first4=Arthur B. |last5=Stajsic |first5=Val |title=Acacia binervia |url=https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/flora/taxon/57030e5e-5104-4983-8794-c7c8e6b39353 |publisher=Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria |access-date=19 April 2025}}{{cite web |title=Acacia binervia |url=https://worldwidewattle.com/speciesgallery/binervia.php |publisher=World Wide Wattle |access-date=19 April 2025}}
Taxonomy
In 1798, German botanist Johann Christoph Wendland first described this species as Mimosa binervia in his Botanische Beobachtungen: nebst einigen neuen Gattungen und Arten.{{cite web|title=Mimosa binervia |url=https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/rest/instance/apni/486023 |publisher=APNI|access-date=19 April 2025}}{{cite book |last1=Wendland |first1=Johann C. |title=Botanische Beobachtungen: nebst einigen neuen Gattungen und Arten |date=1798 |publisher=Bey den Gebrüdern Hahn |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/186583#page/64/mode/1up |location=Hannover |pages=56–57 |access-date=19 April 2025}} In 1919 James Francis Macbride transferred the species to Acacia as A. binervia and the change was published in Contributions of the Gray Herbarium of Harvard University.{{cite web|title=Acacia binervia |url=https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/rest/instance/apni/463872 |publisher=APNI|access-date=19 April 2025}}{{cite journal |last1=Macbride |first1=James |title=Notes on certain Leguminosae. |journal=Contributions of the Gray Herbarium of Harvard University |date=1919 |volume=59 |page=7 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/123407#page/710/mode/1up |access-date=19 April 2025}} The specific epithet (binervia) refers to the phyllodes having two veins, although there are usually three to five more or less prominent veins.
Distribution and habitat
Coast myall is found in central New South Wales from the Hunter Region south, and to Bungonia in the southwest, and continuing south into Victoria. In the Sydney basin, it grows on a variety of soils and associated plant communities—alluvial soils, sandstone-, shale- or trachyte-based soils, generally with good drainage. It grows in dry sclerophyll forest, associated with such species as yellow bloodwood (Corymbia eximia), grey gum (Eucalyptus punctata), narrow-leaved ironbark (E. crebra), mugga ironbark (E. sideroxylon), or more open woodland with narrow-leaved ironbark and black cypress pine (Callitris endlicheri), and riparian (riverbank) forest with river peppermint (E. elata) and gossamer wattle (Acacia floribunda). There is a single record from the upper Snowy River in Victoria.
Ecology
Acacia binervia regenerates from bushfire by a soil-borne seedbank, the seeds germinate and grow after fire while adult plants are killed. The plant is reportedly toxic to livestock as the foliage phyllodes contain prussic acid. The frequency of fire for the cycle to persist is anywhere from 10 to 50 years. Coast myall is useful to bees in the honey industry.{{cite journal |last1=Benson |first1=Doug |last2=MacDougall |first2=Lyn |title=Ecology of Sydney Plant Species; Part 4 Dicotyledon fabily Fabaceae |journal=Cunninghamia |date=1995 |volume=4 |issue=4 |page=690 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/313069#page/165/mode/1up |access-date=19 April 2025}}
Conservation status
Coast myall is listed as "critically endangered" in Victoria in the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988.
Cultural significance
For the Dharawal people, the flowering of Acacia binervia was used as a seasonal indicator of the presence of fish in bays and estuaries.{{cite web |title=D'harawal calendar |url=http://www.bom.gov.au/iwk/calendars/dharawal.shtml |website=Indigenous Weather Knowledge |publisher=Bureau of Meteorology |access-date=22 April 2022 |date=2016}}