''Acacia restiacea'' is a species of
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 ...
belonging to the sub genus ''Alatae'' which is native to
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 ...
.
Description
It is a small, leafless shrub that typically grows to a height of . The shrub resembles rushes but can have an erect or sprawling habit.
[ It is usually multi-stemmed, the green glaucous stems are terete and finely striate. The ]bipinnate
The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular o ...
foliage is sometimes present toward the base of the stems. 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 are rarely present and resemble the stems, pentagonal-terete in section. The phyllodes are in length and wide.
Taxonomy
The species was first formally described by the botanist George Bentham in 1842 as part of the William Jackson Hooker
Sir William Jackson Hooker (6 July 178512 August 1865) was an English botanist and botanical illustrator, who became the first director of Kew when in 1841 it was recommended to be placed under state ownership as a botanic garden. At Kew he ...
work ''Notes on Mimoseae, with a synopsis of species'' published in the ''London Journal of Botany''. It was reclassified in 2003 by Leslie Pedley
Leslie Pedley (19 May 1930 – 27 November 2018)IPNILeslie Pedley/ref> was an Australian botanist who specialised in the genus ''Acacia''. He is notable for bringing into use the generic name ''Racosperma'', creating a split in the genus, which r ...
as ''Racosperma restiaceum'' and then transferred back to the genus ''Acacia'' in 2006.
Distribution
It is found from the Mid West
The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...
, extending through the Wheatbelt and into the Goldfields-Esperance regions of Western Australia. It is found as far north as Northampton
Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...
to coastal suburbs of Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...
in the south and out to Westonia in the east. Isolated populations are also found near Tambellup and Menzies. The plant is found in a variety of habitats growing in rocky or gravelly loam soils over or around granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
.[
]
See also
* List of ''Acacia'' species
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2709143
restiacea
Acacias of Western Australia
Fabales of Australia
Plants described in 1842
Taxa named by George Bentham