''Acacia costata'' 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'' that is
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 Western Australia.
Description
The spreading and prickly shrub typically grows to a height of .
[ The ribbed branchlets are hairy to woolly with long stipules. The pungent, rigid, 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 have a narrowly lanceolate
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 and are straight or shallowly recurved. The phyllodes have a length of and a width of with five nerves and a prominent midrib.[ It blooms from May to June and produces yellow flowers.][ The 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 ...
s occur singly in the axil
A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, st ...
s. The spherical flower-heads contain 13 to 19 golden flowers that are loosely bound. The curved, dark red-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 have a length of up to and a diameter of .[
]
Taxonomy
The species was first formally described by the botanist George Bentham in 1942 as part of William Jackson Hooker
Sir William Jackson Hooker (6 July 178512 August 1865) was an English botanist and botanical illustrator, who became the first director of Kew when in 1841 it was recommended to be placed under state ownership as a botanic garden. At Kew he ...
's work ''Notes on Mimoseae, with a synopsis of species'' as published in the ''London Journal of Botany''. It is often confused with '' Acacia acutata''.
Distribution
It is native to an area along the west coast in the Wheatbelt 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 ...
between Dandaragan
Dandaragan is a small town in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia. The name of Dandaragan was first recorded in 1850 as the name of a nearby gulley and spring or watering hole known as Dandaraga spring. The word is Indigenous Australian i ...
in the north to Mundaring in the south and Dowerin in the east. It is usually found on lateritic
Laterite is both a soil and a rock type rich in iron and aluminium and is commonly considered to have formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are of rusty-red coloration, because of high iron oxide content. They develop by ...
ridges and sandplains growing in sandy or gravelly soils
See also
* List of ''Acacia'' species
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q15289497
costata
Acacias of Western Australia
Plants described in 1842
Taxa named by George Bentham