''Acacia baxteri'', commonly known as Baxter'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'', and is endemic to the south west of Western Australia.

Description

The compact and pungent shrub typically grows to a height of . It blooms from September to December and produces yellow flowers. The shrub has rigid, striate-ribbed and glabrous branchlets. The thick rigid

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 sessile, with a narrowly linear to oblong-elliptic shape and are around in length with a width of . There is one 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 ...

per axil with globular flower heads containing 30 to 50 flowers. After flowering curved woody red-brown seed pods form that are up to long and . The grey-brown seeds have an oblong shape and are in length.

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 in 1842 in the work ''Notes on Mimoseae, with a synopsis of species.'' as published in ''London Journal of Botany''. There are two recognised synonyms for ''A. baxteri''; ''Acacia bagsteri'' as described by George Bentham and ''Racosperma baxteri'' as described 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 ...

. It is closely related to ''

Acacia andrewsii ''Acacia andrewsii'' is a shrub belonging to the genus ''Acacia'' and the subgenus ''Phyllodineae'' that is endemic to western Australia. Description The spreading and prickly shrub typically grows to a height of . It has glabrous to subglabrous ...

'' and has phyllodes that are quite similar to '' Acacia unifissilis''. The species epithet, ''baxteri'', commemorates Bagster ( William Baxter).CHAH Biographical notes: Baxter, William (? - 1836)
/ref>

Distribution

It is native to an area in the Wheatbelt and the Great Southern 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 ...

. The population is disjunct with most found between Ongerup and Albany with scattered populations found further north. The shrub is commonly found s part of ''

Eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as euca ...

'' woodlands or open mallee heath communities.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15289834 baxteri Acacias of Western Australia Plants described in 1842 Taxa named by George Bentham

Description

Taxonomy

Distribution

See also

References