''Acacia daphnifolia'', also known as northern manna gum,
[ is a tree or 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 to Western Australia.
Description
The tree or shrub typically grows to a height of and has smooth light grey to red-brown bark on the stem and major branches. It is often composed of multiple stems and can spread by root-suckering. The dull-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 are patent or occasionally sub-pendulous with an oblanceolate to narrowly elliptic shape. The straight to shallowly recurved phyllodes have a length of and a width of .[ The inflorescences have spherical flower-heads that have a diameter of containing 17 to 30 showy golden flowers with a delicate fragrance. The dark brown to black seed pods that form after flowering resemble a string of beads and have a length of and a width of . The dull brown to black seeds have an oblong to elliptic shape. Seeds are in length and in width.][
]
Taxonomy
The species was first formally described by the botanist Carl Meissner in 1855 in the work ''Botanische Zeitung''. The only synonyms are ''Acacia microbotrya'' var. ''borealis'' and ''Acacia subfalcata''.[
]
Distribution
It is native to an area in the Mid West
The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...
and Wheatbelt regions of Western Australia. The plant is often situated in a variety of habitats including low hills, along the banks of creeks, around areas of saline drainage, flats and road verges where it grows in gravelly sandy-clay or loamy soils found around outcrops of granite or laterite
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 ...
.
See also
* List of ''Acacia'' species
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q9563868
daphnifolia
Acacias of Western Australia
Plants described in 1855
Taxa named by Carl Meissner