''Acacia tropica'' is a shrub or small tree native to tropical areas northern
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 tree or tall shrub typically grows to a height of and has sparsely arranged whippy branches. It has smooth red-brown to grey-brown coloured bark that becomes fibrous with age. The evergreen narrowly elliptic or elliptic shaped
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 straight with a length of and a width of and have between two and four prominent nerves. It blooms between June and August producing flower-spikes with a length of that are densely packed with bright yellow flowers.
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Taxonomy
The species was first formally described as ''Acacia cunninghamii'' var. ''tropica'' by Joseph Maiden and William Blakely in 1927. It was described under the current name by the botanist Mary Tindale
Mary Douglas Tindale (19 September 1920 – 31 March 2011) was an Australian botanist specialising in pteridology (ferns) and the genera ''Acacia'' and ''Glycine''.
Tindale was born in Randwick, New South Wales, the only child of George Harold Ti ...
in 1972 as part of the work ''Notes on Australian taxa of Acacia'' as published in ''Contributions from the New South Wales National Herbarium''. It was reclassified as ''Racosperma tropicum'' in 1987 by Leslie Pedley then transferred back to genus ''Acacia'' in 2001.
Distribution
It is found in the Gulf country
The Gulf Country is the region of woodland and savanna grassland surrounding the Gulf of Carpentaria in north western Queensland and eastern Northern Territory on the north coast of Australia. The region is also called the Gulf Savannah. It ...
of north western Queensland as far east as Croydon extending to the west into the top end of the Northern Territory to around Darwin
Darwin may refer to:
Common meanings
* Charles Darwin (1809–1882), English naturalist and writer, best known as the originator of the theory of biological evolution by natural selection
* Darwin, Northern Territory, a territorial capital city i ...
. It is commonly found alongside creeks and rivers and at base of sandstone hills growing in deep sandy soils in scrubland communities often is association with ''Melaleuca viridiflora
''Melaleuca viridiflora'', commonly known as broad-leaved paperbark, is a plant in the myrtle family Myrtaceae, and is native to woodlands, swamps and streams in monsoonal areas of northern Australia and New Guinea. It is usually a small tree wit ...
''.[
]
See also
* List of ''Acacia'' species
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q15289290
tropica
Flora of the Northern Territory
Flora of Queensland
Plants described in 1972
Taxa named by Joseph Maiden
Taxa named by William Blakely