''Acacia laricina'' 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 shrub typically grows to a height of
[ and can have a dense or spreading or domed habit. It has branchlets that can be covered in a fine, white powdery coating and are hairy at the extremities with linear to triangular stipules that are in length. 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 phyllodes are crowded and appear to be continuous with the branchlets. They are straight to shallowly curved with a pentagonal cross-section and a length and a width of with five prominent nerves.[ The simple inflorescences occur singly 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 an have sperical flower-heads that contain 17 to 30 cream to pale yellow coloured flowers. Following flowering thinly coriaceous seed pods are formed. The red-brown pods have a length up to around and a width of and are curved and coarsely striated. The subshiny brown seeds inside have an oblong to oblong-elliptic shape with a length of and a conical 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
There are two recognized varieties:
*''Acacia laricina var. crassifolia''
*''Acacia laricina var. laricina''
Distribution
It is native to an area in the southern Wheatbelt, Great Southern and Goldfields-Esperance regions of Western Australia where it has an uneven distribution from around Nyabing
Nyabing is a small town in the Great Southern region of Western Australia. The name is of Aboriginal origin and is thought to derive from the Aboriginal word "ne-yameng", which is the name of an everlasting flower ''Rhodanthe manglesii.''
The ...
in the north west to around Ravensthorpe in the south east. It is commonly situated on flats, stony ridges, on granite hills and among granite outcrops growing in loamy and gravelly soils often over laterite
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 ...
.
See also
* List of ''Acacia'' species
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q10293254
laricina
Acacias of Western Australia
Taxa named by Carl Meissner
Plants described in 1844