''Acacia notabilis'', known colloquially as mallee golden wattle, Flinders wattle
[ or stiff golden wattle,]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 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
It typically grows to a height of and has a tall and spreading habit. It has smooth reddish-brown bark and spreading, almost terete and glabrous branches. 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 thick, flat and rigid grey to green phyllodes have a length of up to and a width of around with an oblong-lanceolate shape that is straight or curved. They have a prominent mid-vein with many fine lateral veins and thickened margins. It blooms between July and October producing short flower spikes located in axillary raceme
A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the s ...
s composed of spherical flower heads made up of 4 to 16 deep yellow flowers. Following flowering brown seed pods form that have a narrowly oblong shape with a length of up to and a width of around and contain hard, black ovoid seeds with a length of and a width of .[
]
Taxonomy
The species was first formally described by the botanist Ferdinand von Mueller
Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Vict ...
in 1858 as part of the work '' Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae''. It was reclassified by Leslie Pedley in 2003 as ''Racosperma notabile'' but transferred back to genus ''Acacia'' in 2014.
Distribution
The shrub is native to the Broken Hill
Broken Hill is an inland mining city in the far west of outback New South Wales, Australia. It is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Highway (B79), in the Barrier Range. It is ...
district of arid far western New South Wales as well as Victoria and South Australia.[ The bulk of the population is found in South Australia where the shrub is considered to be quite common. In South Australia it is found on the Eyre Peninsula, the Flinders Ranges, the Mount Lofty Ranges and the Yorke Peninsula as well as more arid areas inland. It is usually found growing in hard and shallow calcareous, alkaline, red or brown ]duplex soil The term “duplex” is used in Australia for soils with contrasting texture between soil horizons, although such soils are found in other parts of the world. Duplex soils are also termed “texture contrast soils”.
With the term “duplex so ...
s as a part of low woodland or open scrubland communities.[
]
See also
* List of ''Acacia'' species
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q4670979
notabilis
Trees of Australia
Fabales of Australia
Flora of New South Wales
Plants described in 1858
Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller