Joseph J Brophy,* Robert J Goldsack and Christopher J R Fookes,

Abstract: The volatiles obtained from the phyllodes of Acacia howittii have been analyzed by GC and GC/MS and found to contain 1-hexen-3-one (8-21%) and 1-octen-3-one (36-46%) as principal components. The major terpenes present in the oil were α−pinene (0.6-7%) and β−caryophyllene (2-5%). The yield of volatiles was less than 0.1%.

The genus Acacia sens. strict., which belongs to the Mimosaceae, contains well in excess of 1,000 described species. Most of these are Australian. It should be noted that other plants currently included in Acacia sens. lat. will be transferred to other genera following a decision by the Nomenclature Section of the XVII International Botanical Congress in Vienna in July 2005. The interested reader is referred to The World Wide Wattle web site for more information about Acacia taxonomy (1). Acacia howittii F. Muell. (Howitt’s Wattle, Sticky Wattle) is a small shrub or tree growing to 9 m in height, with a graceful drooping habit and small, pleasant-smelling flower heads, making it a useful garden specimen. It occurs in a small area of eastern Victoria from the upper Macalister River area near Mt Howitt south to near Yarram and east to near Tabberabbera. In spite of its popularity as an ornamental shrub, it is, in fact, a species on the list of rare Australian species. Further details can be found in the monograph by Maslin et al. (2).