''Acacia rhetinocarpa'', commonly known as neat wattle or resin 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 ...
. It was listed as
vulnerable
Vulnerable may refer to:
General
* Vulnerability
* Vulnerability (computing)
* Vulnerable adult
* Vulnerable species
Music
Albums
* ''Vulnerable'' (Marvin Gaye album), 1997
* ''Vulnerable'' (Tricky album), 2003
* ''Vulnerable'' (The Used album) ...
under the ''
Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999'' in 2013.
Description
The resinous shrub typically grows to a height of and has sparsely hairy and terete branchlets
[ that are yellowish to light brown in colour that become darker toward the base.][ It has inequilaterally obtriangular-obovate to widely obovate-obdeltate 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.[
It blooms between August and October but flowers can appear as late as March. It produces simple inflorescences of spherical flower-heads containing 12 to 15 bright yellow flowers. The straight or curved brown seed pods that form after flowering are linear with a length and a width of .][ The slightly shiny brown seeds with the pods are arranged longitudinally and have an oblong shape with a length of .][
The shrub is thought to be wind-pollinated and ants thought to be the main agent of seed dispersal ( myrmechory) while ]germination
Germination is the process by which an organism grows from a seed or spore. The term is applied to the sprouting of a seedling from a seed of an angiosperm or gymnosperm, the growth of a sporeling from a spore, such as the spores of fungi, fer ...
is most likely to result from land disturbance or fire.[
]
Taxonomy
The species was first formally described by the botanist John McConnell Black in 1920 as part of the work ''Additions to the flora of South Australia'' as published in the ''Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of South Australia''. It was reclassified as ''Racosperma rhetinocarpum'' by Leslie Pedley in 2003 and transferred back to genus ''Acacia'' in 2005.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 taken from the Greek words ' meaning ''resin'' or ''gum'' and ' meaning ''fruit'' in reference to the resinous nature of the seed pods.
Distribution
It is endemic to some small areas on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia near Arno Bay
Arno Bay is a small fishing and tourist town on the east coast of Eyre Peninsula in South Australia, located on the Lincoln Highway, South Australia, Lincoln Highway about halfway between Whyalla and Port Lincoln. First proclaimed under the name ...
extending to the Yorke Peninsula near Curramulka
Curramulka is a town in the Australian state of South Australia on the Yorke Peninsula. Curramulka is within easy driving distance of the coastal resort towns of Port Victoria and Port Vincent and is north-east of Minlaton. At the , Curramu ...
and then between the Gilbert River and Monarto where it is found growing in calcareous sandy or sandy-loamy soils as a part of open scrubland communities[ The total area over which the shrub is found has been calculated as .][
]
See also
* List of ''Acacia'' species
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q9568616
rhetinocarpa
Flora of South Australia
Plants described in 1920
Taxa named by John McConnell Black