''Acacia coolgardiensis'', commonly known as sugar brother or spinifex wattle, is a
shrub
A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...
in the
family
Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...
. Endemic to
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 ...
, it is widely distributed in the semi-arid
spinifex country from
Carnarvon to
Kalgoorlie
Kalgoorlie is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is sometimes referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder, as the surrounding urban area includ ...
.
Sugar brother grows to a height of about three metres. It nearly always has multiple stems. Like most ''
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 ...
'' species, 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. These are green, and may be up to 10 centimetres long and about three millimetres wide. The flowers are yellow, and held in cylindrical clusters up to two centimetres long and five millimetres wide. The pods are papery, about three millimetres wide.
Taxonomy
It was first published by
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 1920, based on a specimen collected by
Leonard Clarke Webster
Leonard Clarke Webster (1870 – 26 September 1942) was a botanical collector in Australia.
Born in Launceston, Tasmania, his first occupation was as a pharmacist. By 1900 he was living in the vicinity of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. Between 1 ...
near
Coolgardie in 1900, and a description of the fruit near
Kunonoppin supplied by
Frederick Stoward. The specific name is in reference to the town of Coolgardie.
There are three recognised subspecies:
*
''A. c.'' subsp. ''coolgardiensis''
*
''A. c.'' subsp. ''effusa''
*
''A. c.'' subsp. ''latior''
See also
*
List of ''Acacia'' species
References
*
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*
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{{Taxonbar, from=Q4670904
Acacias of Western Australia
coolgardiensis
Fabales of Australia
Taxa named by Joseph Maiden