''Acacia dilatata'' 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'' which 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
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 ...
.
Description
The shrub typically grows to a height of .
[ The multistemmed shrub can have a sprawling or compact habit. The usually hairy branchlets have rigid and spinose stipules with a length of . The dark-green to yellow-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 and have a length of nd .[ 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 axils on long peduncles. The flower-heads have a spherical to obloid shape and contain 15 to 25 sub-densely packed golden flowers. The curved and terete 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 diameter of and a length of up to . The oblong brown seeds within the pods are longitudinal and have a length of up to .[
]
Distribution
It is native to an area close to the west coast 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.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 growing in sandy or clay soils.[ The bulk of the population is scattered from Mingenew south to Mogumber and is often a part of low shrubland or heath communities with scattered '']Eucalyptus
''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as euca ...
'' and '' Banksia'' species.[
]
See also
* List of ''Acacia'' species
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q9564112
dilatata
Acacias of Western Australia
Taxa named by George Bentham
Plants described in 1855