''Acacia abbreviata'' is a species of flowering plant in the family
and is
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...
to arid parts of northern
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
. It is a spreading,
glabrous, resinous shrub with linear to narrowly oblong
phyllodes, spike of golden flowers, and linear to lance-shaped
pods.
Description
The resinous shrub has a spreading habit and typically grows to a height of with a width of . The generally smooth pale grey-brown coloured bark is minutely fissured. The angular yellow to red-brown branchlets have small resinous hairs and obscure ridges. The linear green phyllodes occur in groups of six at the nodes. They have a narrowly oblong or narrowly oblanceolate shape and a length of and a width of with indistinct nerves. It blooms between April and October producing cylindrical flower-spikes with a length of packed with golden coloured flowers. The flat and sub-woody
seed pod
This page provides a glossary of plant morphology. Botanists and other biologists who study plant morphology use a number of different terms to classify and identify plant organs and parts that can be observed using no more than a handheld magnify ...
s that form after flowering have a linear-oblanceolate shape that tapers toward the base. The pods are in length and wide, have prominent margins and open elastically from the apex. The seeds inside are arranged obliquely to longitudinally. The brown seeds have a narrowly oblong shape and a length of and have a narrowly turbinate aril.
[Flora of Australia: ''Acacia abbreviata'' Maslin]
Flora of Australia. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
Taxonomy
''Acacia abbreviata'' was first formally described in 1980 by the botanist
Bruce Maslin
Bruce Roger Maslin (born 3 May 1946) is an Australian botanist, known for his work on ''Acacia'' taxonomy.
Born in Bridgetown, Western Australia, he obtained an honours degree in botany from the University of Western Australia in 1967, then to ...
in the ''
Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens
The Adelaide Botanic Garden is a public garden at the north-east corner of the Adelaide city centre, in the Adelaide Park Lands. It encompasses a fenced garden on North Terrace, Adelaide, North Terrace (between Lot Fourteen, the site of the old ...
'' from a specimen collected by
John Richard Maconochie
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second E ...
(as ''
Acacia amentifera'') in the
Tanami Desert in 1970.
It was reclassified as ''Racosperma abbreviatum'' in 2003 by
Leslie Pedley
Leslie Pedley (19 May 1930 – 27 November 2018)IPNILeslie Pedley/ref> was an Australian botanist who specialised in the genus ''Acacia''. He is notable for bringing into use the generic name ''Racosperma'', creating a split in the genus, which r ...
in the journal ''
Austrobaileya'',
then transferred back to genus ''Acacia'' in 2006.
The
specific epithet
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...
(''abbreviata'') means "shortened", referring to the very short phyllodes.
Distribution
The shrub is found in a small area of the
Tanami Desert in the
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...
close to the
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
n border. It usually grows on stony
lateritic
Laterite is both a soil and a rock type rich in iron and aluminium and is commonly considered to have formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are of rusty-red coloration, because of high iron oxide content. They develop by ...
ridges and plains where it grows in shallow clay loamy soils as a part of
spinifex communities.
See also
*
List of ''Acacia'' species
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q9561729
abbreviata
''Abbreviata'' is a genus of nematodes belonging to the family Physalopteridae.
The genus has almost cosmopolitan distribution
In biogeography, cosmopolitan distribution is the term for the range of a taxon that extends across all or most o ...
Plants described in 1980
Flora of the Northern Territory
Taxa named by Bruce Maslin