''Acacia horridula'' 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
endemic to south 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 slender single-stemmed shrub typically grows to a height of and produces yellow flowers from May to August.
[ It usually has red-brown to light brown coloured branchlets that are covered in a dense mat of woolly hairs and setaceous to narrowly triangular stipules with a length of . 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 evergreen patent phyllodes are usually crowded on the branchlets and have a narrowly semi-trullate shape.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 with spherical heads containing four pale yellow flowers. The terete, red-brown and striated seed pods that form after flowering are curved and narrowed at both ends with a length of up to and a width of around . The oblong seeds inside are arranged longitudinally and are in length with a conical and terminal aril
An aril (pronounced ), also called an arillus, is a specialized outgrowth from a seed that partly or completely covers the seed. An arillode or false aril is sometimes distinguished: whereas an aril grows from the attachment point of the see ...
.[
]
Taxonomy
The species was first formally described by the botanist Carl Meissner in 1844 as part of the work ''Leguminosae'' in '' Plantae Preissianae'. It was reclassified as ''Racosperma horridulum'' by Leslie Pedley in 2003 and then transferred back to genus ''Acacia'' in 2006.
Distribution
It is native to an area along the south coast in the Peel
Peel or Peeling may refer to:
Places Australia
* Peel (Western Australia)
* Peel Island, Queensland
*Peel, New South Wales
* Peel River (New South Wales)
Canada
* Peel Parish, New Brunswick
* Peel, New Brunswick, an unincorporated communi ...
and South West regions of Western Australia.[ particularly in the Darling Range usually as a part of '' Eucalyptus'' woodland communities.][
]
See also
* List of ''Acacia'' species
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q9565415
horridula
Acacias of Western Australia
Plants described in 1844
Taxa named by Carl Meissner