''Acacia lanceolata'' 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'' and is
endemic to a small area of 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 open pungent shrub typically grows to a height of .
[ It usually has many branches with spinose, hairy branchlets that are covered with a fine white powdery coating at the extremities and have stipules on new shoots. 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, pungent phyllodes have an inequilateral to lanceolate shape but are also occasionally narrowly elliptic. The glabrous to sparsely haired phyllodes are in length and wide and have a central midrib central and two or three parallel minor nerves. When it blooms it produces simple inflorescences with single headed raceme
A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the s ...
s with an axis that is less than in length. the spherical to shortly obloid flower-heads contain 20 to 23 golden coloured flowers. Following flowering it will produce seed pods that resemble a string of beads. The glabrous and firmly chartaceous pods are often quite tightly coiled with a length up to and a width of around . The seeds inside are arranged longitudinally inside and have an oblong-elliptic shape with a length of around .[
]
Taxonomy
The species was first formally described by the botanist Bruce Maslin in 1999 as a part of the work ''Acacia miscellany. The taxonomy of fifty-five species of Acacia, primarily Western Australian, in section Phyllodineae (Leguminosae: Mimosoideae)'' as published in the journal '' Nuytsia''. It was reclassified as ''Racosperma lanceolatum'' in 2003 then transferred back to genus ''Acacia'' in 2006.
Distribution
It is native to an area along the west coast of the Wheatbelt and Mid West
The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...
regions of Western Australia where it is commonly situated on breakaways and lateritic
Laterite is both a soil and a rock type rich in iron and aluminium and is commonly considered to have formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are of rusty-red coloration, because of high iron oxide content. They develop by ...
hills in between the towns of Mingenew in the north west, Morawa in the north east and Three Springs in the south.
See also
* List of ''Acacia'' species
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q15287534
lanceolata
Acacias of Western Australia
Taxa named by Bruce Maslin
Plants described in 1999