''Acacia bakeri'', known as the marblewood, white marblewood, Baker's wattle or scrub wattle,
[ is one of the largest of all ]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 ...
s, growing to tall. It is a long-lived climax rainforest
Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...
tree from eastern 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 ...
. Unlike most acacias, fire is not required for seed germination. This tree is considered vulnerable to extinction. Its former habitat is lowland subtropical rainforest, which has been mostly cleared in the 19th and 20th centuries.[
]
Description
The tree is found with heights of but must often is found with a height of around [ and has an erect to spreading habit. The grey to greyish brown coloured bark is finely fissured or sometimes smooth. It has reddish coloured, terete and glabrous branchlets. Like most ''Acacias'' it has ]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 rather than true leaves. The evergreen phyllodes have an elliptic to broadly elliptic shape and are straight to slightly curved with a length of and a width of and have three to four prominent veins. It usually flowers in the spring and produces 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 that appear singly on the raceme axis. The spherical flower-heads have a diameter of and contain 15 to 30 pale yellow to cream-coloured flowers. The firmly papery to thinly leathery 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 are straight or curved and flat but can be constricted between the seeds. The pods are in length and wide containing longitudinally arranged seeds.
[
]
Taxonomy
The species was first formally described by the botanist Joseph Maiden
Joseph Henry Maiden (25 April 1859 – 16 November 1925) was a botanist who made a major contribution to knowledge of the Australian flora, especially the genus ''Eucalyptus''. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation when citing ...
in 1896 as part of the work ''A giant Acacia from the Brunswick River'' as published in the ''Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales''. It was reclassified as ''Racosperma bakeri'' 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 1987 the transferred back to genus ''Acacia'' in 2001.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 Richard Thomas Baker who worked for the Sydney Technological Museum and collected the type specimen
In biology, a type is a particular wiktionary:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to a ...
.[
It is thought to be allied with '' Acacia binervata'' and part of a group of species closely related '']Acacia rothii
''Acacia rothii'', commonly known as tooroo, Roth's wattle, lancewood and spoon tree, is a shrub of the genus ''Acacia'' and the subgenus ''Plurinerves'' that is endemic to an area in north eastern Australia.
Description
The tree typically grows ...
''.[
]
Distribution
The natural range of distribution is from Brunswick Heads
Brunswick Heads is a small town on the north coast of New South Wales, Australia in Byron Shire. At the , the town had a population of 1,737 people.
History
Originally inhabited by people of the Bundjalung people, Bundjalung nation, the Bru ...
and Mullumbimby
Mullumbimby is an Australian town in the Byron Shire in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales. It promotes itself as "The Biggest Little Town in Australia". The town lies at the foot of Mount Chincogan in the Brunswick Valley about 9 k ...
in northeastern New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
to around the Burrum River in the Maryborough of southeastern Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, established_ ...
sclerophyll
Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaf, leaves, short Internode (botany), internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem) and leaf orientation which is paral ...
''Eucalyptus'' forest and rainforest communities.[ It grows usually in lowland areas with volcanic and alluvial soils.][
]
See also
* List of ''Acacia'' species
References
*
(other publication details, included in citation)
{{Taxonbar, from=Q4670871
bakeri
Fabales of Australia
Trees of Australia
Vulnerable flora of Australia
Flora of New South Wales
Flora of Queensland
Vulnerable biota of Queensland
Plants described in 1896
Taxa named by Joseph Maiden