''Acacia microbotrya'', commonly known as manna wattle or gum wattle, is a shrub or tree 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'' that is native to Western Australia. The

Noongar The Noongar (, also spelt Noongah, Nyungar , Nyoongar, Nyoongah, Nyungah, Nyugah, and Yunga ) are Aboriginal Australian peoples who live in the south-west corner of Western Australia, from Geraldton on the west coast to Esperance on the so ...

peoples know the tree as Badjong, Galyang, Koonert or Menna.

Description

The bushy shrub or tree typically grows to a height of with the canopy spreading to a width of . It has glabrous branchlets with rough brown bark on the stem. The patent to pendulous grey-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 have a narrowly elliptic to oblanceolate shape. Each olive green glabrous phyllode is and are wide. It blooms from March to August and produces yellow-cream flowers. The

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 are racemose with the axes having a length of , the cream to pale yellow globular heads containing 20 to 30 flowers have a diameter of . Following flowering dark brown to blackish glabrous

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 form are constricted at regular intervals resembling a string of beads in shape with a length of and a width of . The shiny black seeds have an oblong to elliptic shape with a length of and a width of .

Taxonomy

The species was first formally described by the

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

George Bentham in 1842 as part of

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 ...

's work ''Notes on Mimoseae, with a synopsis of species'' as published in the ''London Journal of Botany''. It was reclassified as ''Racosperma microbotryum'' 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 the genus ''Acacia'' in 2014. ''A. microbotrya'' is very closely related to ''

Acacia amblyophylla ''Acacia amblyophylla'' is a shrub belonging to the genus ''Acacia'' and the subgenus ''Phyllodineae'' that is native to an area along the west coast of Western Australia. Description The bushy and open shrub typically grows to a height of . The ...

'' and '' Acacia jennerae'' but strongly resembles '' Acacia galeata and ''

Acacia saligna ''Acacia saligna'', commonly known by various names including coojong, golden wreath wattle, orange wattle, blue-leafed wattle, Western Australian golden wattle, and, in Africa, Port Jackson willow, is a small tree in the family (biology), fami ...

''. There are two recognised variations: *''Acacia microbotrya var. borealis'' *''Acacia microbotrya var. microbotrya''

Distribution

It is native to an area in the Wheatbelt, Great Southern and Goldfields-Esperance regions of

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 ...

where it grows among rocky outcrops, near watercourses, around salt lakes and along road verges in clay loam or sandy loam soils often over

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 ...

. The bulk of the population is from Kalbarri south east to around Katanning with scattered populations further east near Ongerup and

Lake King Lake King is a town in the eastern Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, from Perth along State Route 40 between Kelmscott and Ravensthorpe. As of 2016, the town had a population of 95. The 2011 census recorded both the population of the tow ...

Cultivation

The plant is commercially available in seed form or as

tubestock Tubestock is the plural term for young plants which have been grown to the point where they are ready for either planting out in the field or potting on to larger pot sizes. Smaller, shallower pots (approx. 50mm in diameter x 80mm deep) are usually ...

. It is commonly used in native gardens as in land rehabilitation an ornamental, as a windbreak, for shelter and for sandalwood. It is fast growing is salt tolerant and will survive in waterlogged areas.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q9566906 microbotrya Acacias of Western Australia Plants described in 1842 Taxa named by George Bentham

Description

Taxonomy

Distribution

Cultivation

See also

References