''Acacia atkinsiana'', commonly known as Atkin's wattle, 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''
endemic to Australia. The indigenous peoples of the area where the shrub is found, the
Kurrama
The Kurrama people, also known as the Puutu Kunti Kurrama people, are an Aboriginal Australian people from the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
The Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura peoples, although of different language groups, are represe ...
peoples, know the shrub as Bilari or Pilarri.
Description
The open, spreading or infundibular shrub typically grows to a height of .
[ It mostly has a "V"-shaped habit but is sometimes rounded shrubs and generally has three to six main stems but is sometimes single-stemmed and with a spindly habit. The rounded and moderately dense crown is open but sometimes bushy when regrowing. The smooth, mid-grey to dark grey coloured bark can be longitudinally fissured on main stems bases. The grey-green to pale green ]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 have a narrowly elliptic to oblanceolate shape with a length of and a width of . The phyllodes are rigid and erect to ascending, generally straight but sometimes shallowly incurved with numerous parallel longitudinal nerves.[ It blooms from December to March or May to July producing spherical yellow flowers.][ The simple inflorescences form scattered flower-heads over the plant. The flowerheads have an obloid to spherical shape with a length of and a width of and contain 70 to 90 densely packed mid-golden flowers. The linear and flat seed pods that form after flowering can be up to in length and wide. The grey-brown pods are thin and crusty and straight to shallowly curved. The shiny dark brown to black seeds within the pod are in length and wide with a yellow coloured central area and a white ]aril
An aril (pronounced ), also called an arillus, is a specialized outgrowth from a seed that partly or completely covers the seed. An arillode or false aril is sometimes distinguished: whereas an aril grows from the attachment point of the see ...
.[
]
Taxonomy
The species was first formally described by the botanist Bruce Maslin in 1982 as part of the work ''Studies in the genus Acacia (Leguminosae: Mimosoideae). Acacia species of the Hamersley Range area, Western Australia'' as published in the journal '' Nuytsia''. It was reclassified as ''Racosperma atkinsianum'' by Leslie Pedley in 2003 then transferred back to genus ''Acacia'' in 2006.Acacia rhodophloia
''Acacia rhodophloia'', commonly known as minni ritchi or western red mulga, is a tree or shrub belonging to the genus ''Acacia'' and the subgenus ''Juliflorae'' that is endemic to a large area of arid central western Australia. The Indigenous ...
''. 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 ...
honours Ken Atkins who provided field data for this and other specimens of Acacia from around the Pilbara during the 1980s.[
]
Distribution
It is native to an area of the Pilbara region of Western Australia from around Newman
Newman is a surname of English origin and may refer to many people:
The surname Newman is widespread in the core Anglosphere.
A
*Abram Newman (1736–1799), British grocer
*Adrian Newman (disambiguation), multiple people
*Al Newman (born 1960) ...
and Karratha.[ There are a few isolated occurrences to the south in the ]Gascoyne
The Gascoyne region is one of the nine administrative regions of Western Australia. It is located in the northwest of Western Australia, and consists of the local government areas of Carnarvon, Exmouth, Shark Bay and Upper Gascoyne. The Ga ...
region within the catchment of the Ashburton River. In the Pilbara the bulk of the population is situated between the central parts of the Hamersley Range in the east extending west to the North West Coastal Highway east of Onslow. It is often part of spinifex plain communities and open shrubland often with ''Acacia ancistrocarpa
''Acacia ancistrocarpa'', commonly known as fitzroy wattle, is a shrub belonging to the genus ''Acacia'' and the subgenus ''Juliflorae''. The shrub is also known as fish hook wattle, pindan wattle and shiny leaved wattle.
The Walmajarri people ...
'' and '' Acacia bivenosa''. It often forms dense, pure stands usually in disturbed areas including verges and burnt out areas having regenerated swiftly from seed.[
]
See also
* List of ''Acacia'' species
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q9562414
atkinsiana
Acacias of Western Australia
Plants described in 1982
Taxa named by Bruce Maslin