''Acacia calantha'' 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'' native to Queensland in Australia.
Description
The dense glabrous shrub typically grows to a height of .
It has slender, glabrous yellowish brown to grey branchlets with green to grey 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. The erect and
filiform phyllodes have a length of and a width of around . They have a prominent midrib which becomes angled with three or four distinct longitudinal ridges when dry. The simple
inflorescences appear in the axil nodes as single spherical flower-heads containing around 30 bright golden flowers. The
seed pods that form after flowering have a narrowly oblong shape and have a length of up to about and a width of . The dark brown to black seeds within have an oblong to elliptic shape with a length of .
[
]
Taxonomy
The species was first formally described by the botanist Leslie Pedley in 1979 in the work ''A revision of Acacia Mill. in Queensland'' as published in the journal '' Austrobaileya''. Pedley then reclassified the shrub in 1987 as ''Racosperma calanthum'' but it was transferred back to the current name in 2001.
Distribution
The shrub is native to an area around Cracow in south eastern Queensland in the Dawson River catchment.[ It is found on the lower slopes of steep sandstone hills and ridges growing in sandy to sandy-clay soils as a pat of dry sclerophyll forest communities as is often associated with species including '' Corymbia maculata'', '' Corymbia trachyphloia'', '' Eucalyptus crebra'', '']Eucalyptus cloeziana
''Eucalyptus cloeziana'', commonly known as Gympie messmate or dead finish, is a species of tree that is endemic to Queensland. It has rough, flaky to fibrous bark on its trunk, smooth bark above, lance-shaped to curved adult leaves that are much ...
'', ''Eucalyptus citriodora
''Corymbia citriodora'', commonly known as lemon-scented gum and other common names, is a species of tall tree that is endemic to north-eastern Australia. It has smooth white to pink bark, narrow lance-shaped to curved adult leaves, flower buds ...
'', '' Corymbia tessellaris'', ''Angophora leiocarpa
''Angophora leiocarpa'', commonly known as rusty gum, is a species of small to medium-sized tree that is endemic to eastern Australia. It has smooth bark on the trunk and branches, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds usually in groups of thre ...
'', '' Lysicarpus angustifolius'', '' Acacia podalyriifolia'' and '' Acacia crassa''.
See also
* List of Acacia species
Several Cladistics, cladistic analyses have shown that the genus ''Acacia sensu lato, Acacia'' is not monophyletic. While the subg. ''Acacia'' and subg. ''Phyllodinae'' are monophyletic, subg. ''Aculeiferum'' is not. This subgenus consists of thr ...
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q15289421
calantha
Flora of Queensland
Plants described in 1979
Taxa named by Leslie Pedley