''Acacia leucoclada'', commonly known as the northern silver wattle, is a species of ''
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 ...
'' native to eastern
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 tree typically grows to a height of and has smooth grey bark that becomes rough and fissured. It has angled to terete ridged branchlets.
[ The tips of immature foliage are a silvery to whitish, coloured and densely haired. The silvery to green and herbaceous or subcoriaceous leaves form along long rachis with 5 to 18 pairs of pinnae that are in length. There are 11 to 45 pairs of pinnules that have a narrowly oblend shape and are in length with a single vein.][
]
Taxonomy and naming
''A. leucoclada'' was first described in 1966, by Mary Tindale
Mary Douglas Tindale (19 September 1920 – 31 March 2011) was an Australian botanist specialising in pteridology (ferns) and the genera ''Acacia'' and ''Glycine''.
Tindale was born in Randwick, New South Wales, the only child of George Harold Ti ...
.[ The specific epithet, ''leucoclada'', derives from two Greek words: ''leucos'' (white) and ''clados'' (shoot/sprout) which were combined to give ''leucocladus, - a, -um'', describing the plant as having white shoots.][
]
Distribution
The range of ''A. leucoclada'' extends from south-eastern Queensland to the north coast, tablelands region, the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range
The Great Dividing Range, also known as the East Australian Cordillera or the Eastern Highlands, is a cordillera system in eastern Australia consisting of an expansive collection of mountain ranges, plateaus and rolling hills, that runs rough ...
, the central coast, Hunter River valley and Pilliga scrub
The Pilliga Forest, sometimes known as the Pilliga Scrub, constitute over 5,000 km2 of semi-arid woodland in temperate north-central New South Wales, Australia. It is the largest such continuous remnant in the state. The forest is loc ...
regions of New South Wales.[ It is mostly found as far south as ]Wagga
Wagga Wagga (; informally called Wagga) is a major regional city in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Murrumbidgee River, with an urban population of more than 56,000 as of June 2018, Wagga Wagga is the state's la ...
and is often part of sclerophyll woodland communities growing in a variety of different habitats and soil types.[
]
See also
* List of ''Acacia'' species
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q15287632
leucoclada
Fabales of Australia
Flora of New South Wales
Flora of Queensland
Taxa named by Mary Tindale
Plants described in 1966