''Acacia quadrilateralis'' 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 ''Phyllodineae'' native to north eastern Australia.
Description
The shrub can grow to a height of up to and has a spindly habit with slender lenticellular branchlets.
[ 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. They are found on short stem-projections usually in groups of two or three in the nodes of mature branchlets with a rather crowded appearance. The slender, rigid, evergreen phyllodes are erect to inclined and more or less quadrangular in section. They are pungent and usually have a length of and a width of with four main nerves. The shrub bloom between July and September andaxil
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 that have spherical flower-heads containing 12 to 30 cream to pale yellow coloured flowers. After flowering firmly chartaceous, dark brown seed pods that resemble a string of beads appear. The pods are up to in length and have a width of containing longitudinally arranged seeds. The dull black to dark mottled brown to yellow seeds have an oblong shape and a length of .
Taxonomy
The 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 ...
is a reference to the approximate tetragonus shape of the cross section of the phyllodes.[
]
Distribution
It is endemic to south eastern Queensland and north eastern New South Wales where the bulk of the population is found between Bundaberg
Bundaberg is a city in the Bundaberg Region, Queensland, Australia, and is the tenth largest city in the state. Bundaberg's regional area has a population of 70,921, and is a major centre of the Wide Bay–Burnett geographical region. The Bun ...
in the north down to around Sydney in the south where it grows in sandy soils over sandstone as a part of open '' Eucalyptus'' woodland communities.[
]
See also
* List of ''Acacia'' species
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q9568454
quadrilateralis
Flora of Queensland
Flora of New South Wales
Plants described in 1825
Taxa named by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle