''Acacia mariae'', commonly known as golden-top wattle
or crowned wattle, is a species of wattle native to central New South Wales.
Description
The shrub typically grows to a height of and has an erect or spreading habit. It has smooth grey coloured bark with angled to
terete branchlets that are densely haired. 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 whorled or clustered evergreen phyllodes have a narrowly elliptic to narrowly oblanceolate shape and are straight to slightly curved. The phyllodes have silvery-grey hairs and a length of and a width of and an obscure midvein. It blooms between July and October producing simple
inflorescences that 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. The spherical flower-heads have a diameter of containing 22 to 38 bright yellow coloured flowers. Following flowering it produces straight and flat
seed pods that have straight sides and a length of and a width of and a thin leathery texture.
[
]
Taxonomy
The species was first formally described by the botanist Leslie Pedley in 2006 as part of the work "Notes on Acacia Mill. (Leguminosae: Mimosoideae), chiefly from Queensland" as published in the journal '' Austrobaileya''. It is often confused with ''Acacia conferta
''Acacia conferta'', commonly known as crowded-leaf wattle, is a shrub belonging to the genus ''Acacia'' and the subgenus ''Phyllodineae'' that is endemic to eastern Australia.
Description
The shrub or tree with a rounded habit that typically g ...
''.specific epithet
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...
honours 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 ...
who was once a botanist with the National Herbarium of New South Wales.[
]
Distribution
It is found in central New South Wales on the eastern side 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 ...
from around Hillston and Katoomba in the south to around the Hunter Valley in the east mostly on the slopes and often in the 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 ...
. It is often a part of dry sclerophyll woodland and mallee communities growing in sandy soils.[
]
See also
* List of ''Acacia'' species
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q9566747
mariae
Flora of New South Wales
Taxa named by Leslie Pedley
Plants described in 2006