''Acacia phacelia'', also known as the Kimberley cluster wattle, is a shrub 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

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 a small area in north western

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 typically grows to a height of but can be as tall as and has a spreading, straggly habit. It has slender and terete branchlets that are densely covered in fine soft hairs. 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 phyllodes occur in clusters of two to eight at the more mature nodes but singly on new shoots. The flat, evergreen phyllodes have a narrowly oblong-oblanceolate shape and are shallowly incurved to straight and usually have a length of and a width of . It blooms from between December and January and from May to October and produces obloid to short-cylindrical flower-spikes with a length of . Following flowering firmly crustaceous, red-brown coloured

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 will form. The pods are straight, flat and linear with a length of and a width of . and are longitudinally striated. The grey-brown to dark brown seeds inside have a length of and bordered by dull cream tissue.

Distribution

It is native to a small area in the west

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia * Kimberley (Western Australia) ** Roman Catholic Diocese of Kimberley * Kimberley Warm Springs, Tasmania * Kimberley, Tasmania a small town * County of Kimberley, a ...

region of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. A few populations of the plant are known and are spread over a distance of about from around the

Sale River The Sale River is a river in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The river was seen and named on 9 June 1865 by an expedition from the short-lived Camden Harbor settlement (in Camden Sound) searching for pastoral land. The expedition co ...

, Synnott Range, Edkins Range and Mount Daglish where it is often situated between

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

ridges growing in shallow sandy soils as a part of open low woodland communities where it is sparsely distributed.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q24190347 phacelia Acacias of Western Australia Plants described in 2013 Taxa named by Bruce Maslin Taxa named by Russell Lindsay Barrett Taxa named by Matthew David Barrett

Description

Distribution

See also

References