''Acacia arida'', commonly known as arid wattle or false melaleuca, is a shrub belonging to the genus ''

Acacia ''Acacia'', commonly known as the wattles or acacias, is a large genus of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa and Australasia. The genus na ...

'' and the subgenus ''Juliflorae'' native to Western Australia.

Description

The obconic shrub typically grows to a height of . It blooms from February to March or July to August producing yellow flowers. It grows on red sandy or stony soils. It has multiple slender stems arising from the base that can have a diameter of up to when mature. New stems sprout from subterranean runners and resprout from base after bushfires. The smooth light grey bark becomes lighter at the end of branches. It forms a soft dense crown of delicate foliage. The linear shaped

phyllode Phyllodes are modified petioles or leaf stems, which are leaf-like in appearance and function. In some plants, these become flattened and widened, while the leaf itself becomes reduced or vanishes altogether. Thus the phyllode comes to serve the ...

s are flat, not rigid, erect, straight to shallowly incurved. Each dull light green phyllode is long, and and exudes a sweet fragrant smell. The simple

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

s form as spikes that are scattered over plant and are long and wide with the flowers densely arranged. Following flowering

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 form that are Pods flat to sub-quadrangular in shape and in length with a width of . The erect, woody, yellow-brown to brown pods open elastically from the apex and are often slightly hooked.

Taxonomy

The species was first formally described by the

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

George Bentham George Bentham (22 September 1800 – 10 September 1884) was an English botanist, described by the weed botanist Duane Isely as "the premier systematic botanist of the nineteenth century". Born into a distinguished family, he initially studi ...

in 1842 as part of

William Jackson Hooker Sir William Jackson Hooker (6 July 178512 August 1865) was an English botanist and botanical illustrator, who became the first director of Kew when in 1841 it was recommended to be placed under state ownership as a botanic garden. At Kew he ...

's work ''Notes on Mimoseae, with a synopsis of species'' as published in the ''London Journal of Botany''. ''A. arida'' is closely related to '' Acacia orthocarpa'' it is also related to '' Acacia arrecta'' . A possible hybrid between ''A. arida'' and '' Acacia stellaticeps'' has been collected near Roebourne. Synonyms include; ''Acacia trachycarpa'' as described by

Ernst Georg Pritzel Ernst Georg Pritzel (15 May 1875 – 6 April 1946) was a German botanist. He is known for his research in the fields of phytogeography and taxonomy. He contributed works on Lycopodiaceae, Psilotaceae and Pittosporaceae to Engler & Prantl’s "Die ...

, ''Racosperma aridum'' 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 ...

and ''Acacia subrotata'' by

Karel Domin Karel Domin (4 May 1882, Kutná Hora, Kingdom of Bohemia – 10 June 1953, Prague) was a Czech botanist and politician. After gymnasium school studies in Příbram, he studied botany at the Charles University in Prague ) , image_name = C ...

. The species name is from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

word ''aridus'' meaning ''dry'' referring to the annotation on the type specimen saying ''parched desert shores of Cambridge Gulf, NW Coast'' when it was collected by Allan Cunningham in 1819.

Distribution

It is native to an area of the

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia * Kimberley (Western Australia) ** Roman Catholic Diocese of Kimberley * Kimberley Warm Springs, Tasmania * Kimberley, Tasmania a small town * County of Kimberley, a ...

and

Pilbara The Pilbara () is a large, dry, thinly populated region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its Aboriginal peoples; its ancient landscapes; the red earth; and its vast mineral deposits, in particular iron ore. It is also a glo ...

regions of

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 ...

. ''A. arida'' has a scattered, wide distribution within the Pilbara but generally does not dominate the vegetation. It can form dense stands on many hilltops, called ''sky islands'', particularly in the

Hamersley Range The Hamersley Range is a mountainous region of the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The range was named on 12 June 1861 by explorer Francis Thomas Gregory after Edward Hamersley (senior), Edward Hamersley, a prominent promoter of his explo ...

. Grows in skeletal sandy soils along shallow, ephemeral watercourses or on slopes of hills and in breakaways it will also grow in red sandy loam or coarse, gravelly, skeletal sandy soils over

laterite 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 ...

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

. Often a part of spinifex or low, open ''

Eucalypt Eucalypt is a descriptive name for woody plants with capsule fruiting bodies belonging to seven closely related genera (of the tribe Eucalypteae) found across Australasia: ''Eucalyptus'', '' Corymbia'', '' Angophora'', ''Stockwellia'', ''Allosyn ...

'' woodland communities.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15289542 arida Acacias of Western Australia Plants described in 1842 Taxa named by George Bentham

Description

Taxonomy

Distribution

See also

References