''Acacia erinacea'', also known as prickly wattle,
[ is a shrub belonging to the genus '' Acacia'' and the subgenus ''Phyllodineae'' that is native to Western Australia.
]
Description
The rigid and prickly shrub typically grows to a height of .[ It has branches that divide into short, ]divaricate
Divaricate means branching, or having separation or a degree of separation. The angle between branches is wide.
In botany
In botany, the term is often used to describe the branching pattern of plants. Plants are said to be divaricating when the ...
, whitish, finely ribbed and spinose branchlets. The new shoots are red to red-brown in colour. The ascending to erect grey-green phyllodes have an oblong to elliptic to oblanceolate shape with a length of and a width of .[ Each ]inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphology (biology), Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of sperma ...
has spherical flower heads containing 12 to 22 golden flowers. After flowering the 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 form that have an oblong shape and are slightly biconvex. Each pod is in length and wide containing dark brown oblong ovate shaped seeds.[
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Taxonomy
The species was first formally described by the botanist George Bentham
George Bentham (22 September 1800 – 10 September 1884) was an English botanist, described by the weed botanist Duane Isely as "the premier systematic botanist of the nineteenth century". Born into a distinguished family, he initially studie ...
in 1842 as part of William Jackson Hooker's work ''Notes on Mimoseae, with a synopsis of species'' as published in the ''London Journal of Botany 1''. It was reclassified as ''Racosperma eriocladum'' 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 transferred back to the genus ''Acacia'' in 2006.[
]
Distribution
It 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 else ...
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 ...
, Goldfields-Esperance, Wheatbelt and Great Southern regions of Western Australia where it grows in most soil types especially those high in clay.[
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See also
* List of ''Acacia'' species
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q9564497
erinacea
''Erinacea'' is a small genus of flowering plants in the family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the famil ...
Acacias of Western Australia
Plants described in 1842
Taxa named by George Bentham