''Acacia xiphophylla'', commonly known as snakewood or snake-wood, is a
tree
In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...
in the
family
Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...
that is
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...
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 ...
. The indigenous group the
Martuthunira,
Ngarluma
The Ngarluma are an Indigenous Australian people of the western Pilbara area of northwest Australia. They are coastal dwellers of the area around Roebourne and Karratha. Not including Millstream.
Language
The Ngarluma language belongs to the ...
and
Yindjibarndi
The Yindjibarndi are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Pilbara region of Western Australia. They form the majority of Aboriginal people around Roebourne (the Millstream area). Their traditional lands lie around the Fortescue River.
Langua ...
peoples know it as marrawa, the
Kariyarra know it as puluru and the
Jiwarli know it as pukarti.
[
]
Description
Snakewood grows as a bushy, spreading tree or shrub, usually with two or three main gnarled trunks. It can grow to a height of [ and a width of up to . The main branches usually appear to be contorted and widely spreading and have ]glabrous
Glabrousness (from the Latin ''glaber'' meaning "bald", "hairless", "shaved", "smooth") is the technical term for a lack of hair, down, setae, trichomes or other such covering. A glabrous surface may be a natural characteristic of all or part of ...
to sparingly finely pubescent branchlets.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 ...
'' species, 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. These are bluish grey in colour and have an elliptic or ligulate shape that tapers to the apex. The straight to slightly curved phyllodes are in length and wide and have numerous obscure parallel nerves.[ It flowers shortly after rains. Flowers have been collected between January and May and August and September.][ The rudimentary ]inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...
s occur singly or in pairs in the axil
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. The cylindrical flower-spikes are in length and have a diameter of with loosely pack light golden coloured flowers. The seed pod
This page provides a glossary of plant morphology. Botanists and other biologists who study plant morphology use a number of different terms to classify and identify plant organs and parts that can be observed using no more than a handheld magnify ...
s that form after flowering are linear and raised over the seeds. The crustaceous-woody pods are straight or slightly curved with a length of and a width of wide. The dull brown elliptic seeds within are in length.[
The wood of other trees with wavy grain or wavy coloration has also been called ]snakewood Snakewood is a common name of several different plants:
* ''Acacia'' species (family Fabaceae) in Australia, '' Acacia eremaea'', '' Acacia intorta'', ''Acacia xiphophylla'
* ''Brosimum guianense'' (= ''Piratinera guianensis'') (family Moraceae) (L ...
.
''A. xiphophylla'' is a slow-growing and long-lived species that regenerates exclusively from seeds and will not form root suckers.[
]
Taxonomy
The species was first formally described by Georg August Pritzel
Georg August Pritzel (2 September 1815, Carolath – 14 June 1874) was a German librarian and botanical writer.
He studied in Breslau, graduating with a dissertation titled ''Anemonarum revisio''. In 1851 he began work as a ''Hülfsarbeiter'' at ...
in 1904 as part of the work by Ptritzel and Ludwig Diels
Dr. Friedrich Ludwig Emil Diels (24 September 1874 – 30 November 1945) was a German botanist.
Diels was born in Hamburg, the son of the classical scholar Hermann Alexander Diels. From 1900 to 1902 he traveled together with Ernst Georg Prit ...
''Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae occidentalis. Beitrage zur Kenntnis der Pflanzen Westaustraliens, ihrer Verbreitung und ihrer Lebensverhaltnisse'' as published in ''Botanische Jahrbücher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie''. It was reclassified as ''Racosperma xiphophyllum'' 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 ...
then transferred back to genus ''Acacia'' in 2006.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
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
words ''xiphos'' meaning ''sword'' and ''phyllon'' meaning ''leaf'' in reference to the shape of the phyllodes.[
]
Distribution
It occurs on saline semi-arid land in the Gascoyne River
The Gascoyne River is a river in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. At , it is the longest river in Western Australia.
Description
The Gascoyne River comprises three branches in its upper reaches. Draining the Collier Range, the river ...
and Ashburton catchments east and north of Carnarvon in the Gascoyne
The Gascoyne region is one of the nine administrative regions of Western Australia. It is located in the northwest of Western Australia, and consists of the local government areas of Carnarvon, Exmouth, Shark Bay and Upper Gascoyne. The Gasc ...
and Pilbara
The Pilbara () is a large, dry, thinly populated region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its Aboriginal peoples; its ancient landscapes; the red earth; and its vast mineral deposits, in particular iron ore. It is also a glo ...
regions of Western Australia on plains, rocky clay flats and stony creek beds[
]
See also
* List of ''Acacia'' species
References
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q4671028
Acacias of Western Australia
xiphophylla
Fabales of Australia
Taxa named by Ernst Pritzel
Plants described in 1904