''Acacia quornensis'', commonly known as Quorn 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 ''Phyllodineae'' native to southern
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 and has a bushy, spreading habit. It has dark reddish brown
glabrous branchlets and green narrowly elliptic to oblanceolate shaped pale green
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. The glaucous phyllodes have a length of and a width of and are acute to acuminate with a slightly excentric midrib and obscure lateral nerves.
[ It flowers between September and November producing][ racemose inflorescences have spherical flower-heads containing 8 to 15 loosely packed light golden flowers. The firmly chartaceous to thinly coriaceous, glabrous,][ light brown seed pods][ that form after flowering have as broadly linear to narrowly oblong shape with a length of up to and a width of with longitudinally arranged inside. The hard slightly shiny black seeds have an oblong shape with a length of with a brittle, dark reddish coloured clavate ]aril
An aril (pronounced ), also called an arillus, is a specialized outgrowth from a seed that partly or completely covers the seed. An arillode or false aril is sometimes distinguished: whereas an aril grows from the attachment point of the see ...
.[
]
Taxonomy
It belongs to the '' Acacia microbotrya'' group of ''Acacias'' and is quite closely related to the '' Acacia wattsiana''.[ 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 ...
refers to the place where the type specimen was collected, a hill near Quorn.
Distribution
It is endemic to a small area in the Flinders Range
The Flinders Ranges are the largest mountain range in South Australia, which starts about north of Adelaide. The ranges stretch for over from Port Pirie to Lake Callabonna.
The Adnyamathanha people are the Aboriginal group who have inhabited ...
of South Australia from Quorn to Hawker where it is found on the lower slopes of the range and in rocky gullies growing in calcareous loamy soils as a part of low woodland communities dominated by ''Callitris glaucophylla
''Callitris'' is a genus of coniferous trees in the Cupressaceae (cypress family). There are 16 recognized species in the genus, of which 13 are native to Australia and the other three (''C. neocaledonica, C. sulcata'' and ''C. p ...
''.[
]
See also
* List of ''Acacia'' species
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q15288590
quornensis
Flora of South Australia
Plants described in 1949
Taxa named by John McConnell Black