''Acacia chinchillensis'', commonly known as the chinchilla wattle, is a species of ''

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 ...

'' native to 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 ...

Description

The shrub typically grows to a height of and a width of . It has smooth grey to green bark. It terete with inconspicuous ridges and soft white hair on branchlets. The leaves have a

bipinnate The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular o ...

shape with three to four pairs of pinnae each with 6 to 14 leaflets with a narrowly oblong shape. It produces golden or yellow spherical flower heads. The linear, hairy

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 forma later are flat but raised over the seeds with a length of and a width of .

Taxonomy

The species was first formally described by the botanist

Mary Tindale Mary Douglas Tindale (19 September 1920 – 31 March 2011) was an Australian botanist specialising in pteridology (ferns) and the genera ''Acacia'' and ''Glycine''. Tindale was born in Randwick, New South Wales, the only child of George Harold Ti ...

in 1978 as part of the work ''Notes on Australian taxa of Acacia'' as published in the journal '' Telopea''. It was reclassified as ''Racosperma chinchillense'' in 1987 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 ...

and transferred back into the genus ''Acacia'' in 2001.

Distribution

The species is native to an area of south west

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_ ...

and found in the Darling Downs around the towns of

Chinchilla Chinchillas are either of two species (''Chinchilla chinchilla'' and ''Chinchilla lanigera'') of crepuscular rodents of the parvorder Caviomorpha. They are slightly larger and more robust than ground squirrels, and are native to the Andes mount ...

, Tara,

Cecil Plains Cecil Plains is a rural town and locality in the Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Cecil Plains had a population of 429 people. Geography Cecil Plains is in the Darling Downs, west of the state capital, Brisba ...

and Karara. A population of around 100,000 individual trees were estimated to inhabit the surround state forests. The shrub is often part of the understorey in low woodland to open forest communities.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q9563300 chinchillensis Fabales of Australia Flora of New South Wales Flora of Queensland Plants described in 1978

Description

Taxonomy

Distribution

See also

References