''Acacia pubescens'', also known as the downy wattle, is a species of wattle found in the

Sydney Basin The Sydney Basin is an interim Australian bioregion and is both a structural entity and a depositional area, now preserved on the east coast of New South Wales, Australia and with some of its eastern side now subsided beneath the Tasman Sea. ...

in eastern New South Wales. The downy wattle is classified as vulnerable; much of its habitat has vanished with the growth of the city of Sydney. ''Acacia pubescens'' grows as a shrub to small tree from 1 to 5 m (3.3 to 16.4 ft) high. As with all wattles, it has leaf-like structures known as phyllodes instead of leaves, which are compound (pinnate) and measure in length. The globular yellow flowers appear in spring (August to October).

Description

left, tree in Chullora Wetlands, Sydney ''Acacia pubescens'' grows as a shrub to small tree anywhere from high. The smooth bark is grey-brown in colour, and the branches can have a slightly drooping or weeping

habit A habit (or wont as a humorous and formal term) is a routine of behavior that is repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously.

. Like all wattles, the downy wattle has leaf-like structures known as phyllodes which are compound (pinnate) and measure in length with 3 to 12 pairs of smaller "leaves" or pinnae, each long, and themselves composite - composed of 5 to 20 pairs of pinnules. Arranged in racemes, the globular yellow flowers appear in spring (August to October), peaking in September. Each flower head contains 12 to 20 flowers. Flowering is followed by the development of 3–7 cm long seed pods, which ripen over October to December.

Taxonomy

French botanist

Étienne Pierre Ventenat Étienne Pierre Ventenat (1 March 1757 – 13 August 1808) was a French botanist born in Limoges. He was the brother of naturalist Louis Ventenat (1765–1794). While employed as director of the ecclesiastic library Sainte-Geneviève in Paris, V ...

described the downy wattle in 1803, in his ''Jardin de la Malmaison'' as ''Mimosa pubescens''. It had been grown at the

Château de Malmaison The Château de Malmaison () is a French château situated near the left bank of the Seine, about west of the centre of Paris, in the commune of Rueil-Malmaison. Formerly the residence of Empress Joséphine de Beauharnais, along with the Tuileri ...

in the garden of the Empress

Joséphine de Beauharnais Josephine may refer to: People * Josephine (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) * Josephine (singer), a Greek pop singer Places *Josephine, Texas, United States *Mount Josephine (disambiguation) * Josephine Count ...

. Robert Brown gave it its current name in 1813 in ''Hortus Kewensis''. Common names include downy wattle and hairy-stemmed wattle. Derived from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''pubescens'' "hairy", the species name relates to the hairy stems. English botanist

George Bentham George Bentham (22 September 1800 – 10 September 1884) was an English botanist, described by the weed botanist Duane Isely as "the premier systematic botanist of the nineteenth century". Born into a distinguished family, he initially studi ...

classified ''A. pubescens'' in the series ''Botrycephalae'' in his 1864 ''

Flora Australiensis ''Flora Australiensis: a description of the plants of the Australian Territory'', more commonly referred to as ''Flora Australiensis'', and also known by its standard abbreviation ''Fl. Austral.'', is a seven-volume flora of Australia published be ...

''. Queensland botanist Les Pedley reclassified the species as ''Racosperma pubescens'' in 2003, when he proposed placing almost all Australian members of the genus into the new genus ''

Racosperma ''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 ...

''. However, this name is treated as a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

of its original name. Along with other bipinnate wattles, it is classified in the section ''Botrycephalae'' within the

subgenus In biology, a subgenus (plural: subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus. In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between t ...

''Phyllodineae'' in the genus ''Acacia''. An analysis of genomic and chloroplast DNA along with morphological characters found that the section is polyphyletic, though the close relationships of it and many other species were unable to be resolved. Hybrids with Cootamundra wattle (''

Acacia baileyana ''Acacia baileyana'' or Cootamundra wattle is a shrub or tree in the flowering plant family Fabaceae. The scientific name of the species honours the botanist Frederick Manson Bailey. It is indigenous to a very small area in southern inland New S ...

'') and West Wyalong wattle ('' A. cardiophylla'') have been reported.

Distribution and habitat

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 New South Wales, ''Acacia pubescens'' is restricted to the

, where it is found in scattered populations from Bardwell Valley to Oakdale and Mountain Lagoon. Most plants are located around Bankstown, Fairfield and Rookwood in southwestern Sydney, and Pitt Town in the city's northwest. Most of its habitat has vanished with the spread of housing in Sydney's suburbs, and it is classified as " Vulnerable". It is found on clay soils and associated plant communities—alluvial- and shale-based soils. It grows in open

sclerophyll Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaf, leaves, short Internode (botany), internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem) and leaf orientation which is paral ...

forest, associated with such species as grey box (''

Eucalyptus moluccana ''Eucalyptus moluccana'', commonly known as the grey box, gum-topped box or terriyergro, is a medium-sized to tall tree with rough bark on part or all of the trunk, smooth bark above, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds usually in groups of se ...

''), broad-leaved ironbark ('' E. fibrosa''), white feather honeymyrtle ('' Melaleuca decora''), and blackthorn ('' Bursaria spinosa'').

Ecology

''Acacia pubescens'' plants are thought to live up to 50 years in the wild. They are able to resprout after bushfires from root suckers.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4670992 pubescens Flora of New South Wales Plants described in 1803