''Acacia gillii'', commonly known as Gill's wattle, 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'' that is native to parts of southern Australia. It is named after Austrian botanist

Alexander Gilli Alexander Gilli (29 April 1904 - 16 May 2007) was an Austrian botanist and pteridologist. He was a pioneer in research on plant communities. Some publications * 1968. ''Afghanische Pflanzengesellschaften''. Vegetatio 16 (5/6): 307—375 doi 10 ...

Description

The shrub typically grows to a height of and has a straggly open habit. It has pendulous branches with flexuous branchlets that are flat or angled at extremities The

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 ...

branchlets are a dark red-brown colour. The evergreen, patent and sometimes reflexed

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 have a narrowly oblanceolate shape that is sometimes linear to shallowly incurved. The phyllodes have a length of and a width of and are tapered at the base with prominent margins and midrib. 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 have spherical flower-heads containing 43 to 72 densely packed golden flowers. The linear 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 length of up to and a width of and contain dull black elliptic seeds with a length of .

Taxonomy

The species was first formally described by the botanists

Joseph Maiden Joseph Henry Maiden (25 April 1859 – 16 November 1925) was a botanist who made a major contribution to knowledge of the Australian flora, especially the genus ''Eucalyptus''. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation when citing ...

and

William Blakely William Faris Blakely (November 1875 – 1 September 1941) was an Australian botanist and collector. From 1913 to 1940 he worked in the National Herbarium of New South Wales, working with Joseph Maiden on ''Eucalyptus'', Maiden named a ''red g ...

in 1927 as part of the work ''Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales''. It was reclassified as ''Racosperma gillii'' 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 ...

in 2003 then transferred back to genus Acacia'' in 2006. ''A. gillii'' belongs to the ''

Acacia microbotrya ''Acacia microbotrya'', commonly known as manna wattle or gum wattle, is a shrub or tree belonging to the genus ''Acacia'' and the subgenus ''Phyllodineae'' that is native to Western Australia. The Noongar peoples know the tree as Badjong, Galya ...

'' group and resembles ''

Acacia retinodes ''Acacia retinodes'' is an evergreen shrub that is native plant, native to South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania. Short racemes of yellow flowers are produced periodically throughout the year.

'' and ''

Acacia cretacea ''Acacia cretacea'', also known as chalky wattle, is a shrub belonging to the genus ''Acacia'' and the subgenus ''Phyllodineae'' that is endemic to South Australia. Description The shrub or small tree usually has a single stem and can grow to a ...

''.

Distribution

It is found in a small area of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

in southern parts of the

Eyre Peninsula The Eyre Peninsula is a triangular peninsula in South Australia. It is bounded by the Spencer Gulf on the east, the Great Australian Bight on the west, and the Gawler Ranges to the north. Originally called Eyre’s Peninsula, it was named aft ...

from around

Port Lincoln Port Lincoln is a town on the Lower Eyre Peninsula in the Australian state of South Australia. It is situated on the shore of Boston Bay, which opens eastward into Spencer Gulf. It is the largest city in the West Coast region, and is located a ...

to around Ungarra where it grows in clay or loamy soils as a part of open scrub communities and is associated with ''

Eucalyptus diversifolia ''Eucalyptus diversifolia'', commonly known as the soap mallee, coastal white mallee, South Australian coastal mallee, or coast gum is a species of mallee that is endemic to an area along the southern coast of Australia. It has smooth bark, lanc ...

'' and '' Eucalyptus phenax''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q9564907 gillii Flora of South Australia Plants described in 1927 Taxa named by Joseph Maiden Taxa named by William Blakely

Description

Taxonomy

Distribution

See also

References