''Acacia basedowii'', commonly known as Basedow'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 ''Phyllodineae''
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 central Australia.
Description
The
divaricate
Divaricate means branching, or having separation or a degree of separation. The angle between branches is wide.
In botany
In botany, the term is often used to describe the branching pattern of plants. Plants are said to be divaricating when the ...
, spreading and prickly shrub typically grows to a height of . It blooms from June to October and produces yellow flowers.
[ The shrub has slender, spinescent, pruinose branchlets. The majority of older ]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 shed giving it an open twiggy appearance. The thick phyllodes have an oblong-elliptic shape with a length of and a width of have three to five obscure longitudinal veins. The simple and axillary 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 occur is pairs or solitary with spherical yellow flower-heads. The dark brown 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 curved or twisted pod to a length of around and a width of .[
]
Taxonomy
The species was first formally described by the botanist Joseph Maiden in 1920 as part of the work ''Notes on Acacias, No. IV, with descriptions of new species.'' as published in the ''Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales''. It was reclassified as ''Racosperma basedowii'' 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 2003 and transferred back to the genus ''Acacia'' in 2006.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 the South Australian scientist and explorer Herbert Basedow who collected the type specimen from the Musgrave Ranges
Musgrave Ranges is a mountain range in Central Australia, straddling the boundary of South Australia (Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara) and the Northern Territory (MacDonnell Shire), extending into Western Australia. It is between the Great V ...
in 1903.[
]
Distribution
It is native to an area in the central Goldfields
Goldfield or Goldfields may refer to:
Places
* Goldfield, Arizona, the former name of Youngberg, Arizona, a populated place in the United States
* Goldfield, Colorado, a community in the United States
* Goldfield, Iowa, a city in the United Sta ...
region 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 ...
where it is found on stony slopes and along ephemeral watercoursesSouth Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
and the south west of 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 ...
.
See also
* List of ''Acacia'' species
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q9562635
basedowii
Acacias of Western Australia
Plants described in 1920
Taxa named by Joseph Maiden
Flora of the Northern Territory
Flora of South Australia