''Acacia eremaea'' is a shrub or tree of 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 ''Plurinerves'' 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 an area in western
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
.
Description
The dense shrub or tree typically grows to a height of
[ and has hairy, terete and ribbed branchlets. Like most species of ''Acacia'' 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. The erect, evergreen phyllodes have an elliptic-lanceolate to narrowly elliptic shape and are straight to shallowly incurved. The pungent, grey-green and glabrous
Glabrousness (from the Latin ''glaber'' meaning "bald", "hairless", "shaved", "smooth") is the technical term for a lack of hair, down, setae, trichomes or other such covering. A glabrous surface may be a natural characteristic of all or part of ...
phyllodes are in length and have a width of and have many closely parallel, immersed nerves, three of which are usually slightly raised.[ It blooms from July to October 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 in groups of two to four 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 and have spherical flower-heads with a diameter to containing 54 to 85 densely packed golden coloured flowers. The chartaceous, straight to slightly curved 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 linear shape and are strongly raised over each of the seeds. The glabrous pods have a length up to and a width of and contain glossy brown seeds with an ovate shape and a length of .[
]
Taxonomy
The species was first formally described by the botanist Cecil Rollo Payton Andrews in 1904 as part of the work ''Additions to the West Australian Flora'' as published in the ''Journal of the West Australian Natural History Society''. It was reclassified as ''Racosperma eremaeum'' in 2003 by Leslie Pedley
Leslie Pedley (19 May 1930 – 27 November 2018)IPNILeslie Pedley/ref> was an Australian botanist who specialised in the genus ''Acacia''. He is notable for bringing into use the generic name ''Racosperma'', creating a split in the genus, which r ...
then returned to genus ''Acacia'' in 2006.
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 Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...
and Wheatbelt regions 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 ...
and is commonly situated on saline depressions, stony clay flats and around salt lakes growing in clay, clay-loam and sandy soils.Boolardy Station
Boolardy Station is a remote former sheep and cattle station in the Mid West (Murchison) region of Western Australia, about north-north-east of Pindar and west-south-west of Meekatharra. It is within the Shire of Murchison and situated on ...
and Cue in the north down to around Wongan Hills
Wongan Hills is a range of low flat-topped hills in the Avon Wheatbelt bioregion of Western Australia. It is located at , in the Shire of Wongan–Ballidu.
History
The range was first recorded in 1836 by Surveyor General of Western Australia Jo ...
in the south where it is found in low woodland and tall shrubland usually dominated by other species of ''Acacia''.
See also
* List of ''Acacia'' species
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q15286918
eremaea
Acacias of Western Australia
Taxa named by Cecil Rollo Payton Andrews
Plants described in 1904