''Acacia latescens'', also known as Ball wattle,
[ is a tree in 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 ...
'' (in the family and the subgenus ''Plurinerves'').[ It is native to the ]Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...
where it is common in the Top End
The Top End of Australia's Northern Territory is a geographical region encompassing the northernmost section of the Northern Territory, which aside from the Cape York Peninsula is the northernmost part of the Australian continent. It covers a ra ...
.[
]
Description
''A. latescens'' is a tree growing from 4 to 9 m high. Its bark is brown and fissured. The smooth branchlets are ribbed, and its stipules fall. The pulvinus is 3-5 mm long and smooth. The smooth phyllodes are curved, and are 80-260 mm long by 4-18 mm wide. They have two primary veins (sometimes 1 or 3) and the secondary may be oblique, veined like a feather or forming a network. The base of the phyllode narrows gradually but the apex is acute. There are three glands along the dorsal margin and at the pulvinus. The axilliary inflorescences are racemes or panicles, with 4-11 heads per raceme. The white/cream heads are globular, and 4-6 mm wide on smooth peduncles which are 5-16 mm long. The greyish pods (50-210 mm long by 11-20 mm wide) are straight, and raised over the seeds with a slightly thickened margin. The dark brown to black seeds (9-10 mm long by 5-7 mm wide) are oblique in the pod.[
It flowers from April to July and fruits from August to January.][
]
Distribution
It is found in the following bioregions
A bioregion is an ecology, ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a biogeographic realm, but larger than an ecoregion or an ecosystem, in the World Wide Fund for Nature classification scheme. There is also an attempt to ...
of the Northern Territory: Arnhem Coast, Arnhem Plateau, Central Arnhem
The Central Arnhem, an interim Australian bioregion, is located in the Northern Territory,[ ...](_blank)
, Daly Basin, Darwin Coastal, Gulf Fall and Uplands
The Gulf Fall and Uplands, an interim Australian bioregion, is located in the Northern Territory and Queensland, , Pine Creek, Sturt Plateau, Tiwi Cobourg
Tiwi Cobourg is an interim Australian bioregion located in the Top End of the Northern Territory of Australia. It has an area of , which includes the Cobourg Peninsula of Arnhem Land, Croker Island, and the Tiwi Islands. The bioregion is part o ...
, and Victoria Bonaparte.[
]
Habitat
It grows in eucalypt woodland.[
]
Taxonomy
It was first described by George Bentham in 1842, from a specimen collected by Allan Cunningham on May-Day Island in van Diemen's Gulf,[ in 1818 on the first voyage of the ]Mermaid
In folklore, a mermaid is an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Mermaids are sometimes asso ...
(Isolectotype BM000796904).
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q9566090
latescens
Flora of the Northern Territory
Plants described in 1842
Taxa named by George Bentham