''Acacia drepanocarpa'' 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 ''Juliflorae'' native to northern Australia.

Description

The shrub typically grows to a height of in height. It blooms between May and August producing inflorescences with yellow flowers. The resinous shrub hasp apically angular yellowish glabrous branchlets and are often scurfy and have small ridges. The evergreen linear to narrowly elliptic shaped

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 with a length of and a width of . The phyllodes have three to five prominent, raised nerves. The flowers-spikes produced are in length with pale to bright yellow flowers. The seed pods that form after flowering are flat with a linear-oblanceolate shape and around in length and wide. The glabrous, thick, coriaceous to thinly woody pods have oblique nerves and are crusted in resin and open elastically from the apex. The dark brown seeds are obliquely arranged with a narrowly oblong to elliptic shape with a length of .

Taxonomy

The species was first formally described by the botanist

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Vict ...

in 1859 as part of the work ''Contributiones ad Acaciarum Australiae Cognitionem'' as published in the ''Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society''. The species is often confused with ''

Acacia polyadenia ''Acacia polyadenia'' is a shrub or small tree belonging to the genus ''Acacia'' and the subgenus ''Juliflorae'' that is native to north eastern Australia. Description The prostrate shrub or small tree has glabrous slender branchlets slender th ...

''. ''A. drepanocarpa'' belongs to the '' Acacia stigmatophylla'' group. There are two recognised

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

: * ''Acacia drepanocarpa'' subsp. ''drepanocarpa'' * ''Acacia drepanocarpa'' subsp. ''latifolia''

Distribution

It is found in an area of the

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia * Kimberley (Western Australia) ** Roman Catholic Diocese of Kimberley * Kimberley Warm Springs, Tasmania * Kimberley, Tasmania a small town * County of Kimberley, a ...

region of Western Australia. extending into the top end of the Northern Territory and into western and central Queensland. It grows on undulating

pindan Pindan is a name given to the red-soil country of the south-western Kimberley region of Western Australia. The term comes from a local language and applies both to the soil and to the vegetation community associated with it.Lowe (2003). History ...

plains in red sandy-gravelly soils. It is distributed from south of Broome in the west to as far east as Barkley Downs Station in western Queensland.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15289418 drepanocarpa Acacias of Western Australia Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller Plants described in 1859 Flora of the Northern Territory Flora of Queensland

Description

Taxonomy

Distribution

See also

References