''Acacia multistipulosa'' is a shrub or tree 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 ''Juliflorae'' that is native to northern
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 or tree can grow to a maximum height of and usually has a spindly habit. It has dark brown to black to grey coloured bark that is smooth on younger trees but becomes longitudinally fissured as it ages. The plant has terete and densely haired branchlets with very conspicuous
stipules. 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 have a narrowly elliptic to oblanceolate shape and can be slightly sickle-shaped. The coriaceous and often hairy phyllodes have a length of and a width of with one prominent midvein and 8 to 13 minor nerves per millimetre. It blooms between March and June producing golden flowers. The cylindrical flower-spikes are in length and densely packed with bright yellow flowers. The scurfy green aging to brown
seed pod
This page provides a glossary of plant morphology. Botanists and other biologists who study plant morphology use a number of different terms to classify and identify plant organs and parts that can be observed using no more than a handheld magnify ...
s that form after flowering have a flat linear shape but can occasionally be slightly twisted and have a length of and a width of . The dark-brown to black seeds inside are arranged obliquely and a in length with a pale open
areole.
Distribution
It is
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...
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 confined to an area within
Kakadu National Park where it is often situated on rocky ledges, usually amongst boulders growing in sandy soils over sandstone as a part of open ''
Eucalyptus
''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as euca ...
'' woodland communities with an understorey of ''
Triodia''.
[
]
See also
* List of ''Acacia'' species
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q9567170
multistipulosa
Flora of the Northern Territory
Plants described in 1996