''Acacia fauntleroyi'' is a shrub or small 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 ''Juliflorae'' 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 a part of south western
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 shrub or small tree typically grows to a height of with minni-ritchi bark and yellow flowers.
[ The silvery coloured branchlets have small silky hairs. The silvery to 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 linear to shallowly incurved shape. Each phyllode has a length of and a width of and also are covered with silky hairs and seven to nine raised nerves on each face. The simple 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 obloid to cylindrical shaped flower-heads contain 43 to 49 golden coloured flowers. The flower-heads are around in length and with a diameter of . The linear brown 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 raised over the seeds. The pods are straight to slightly curved with a length of up to and a width of . The slightly glossy light to dark brown seeds within the pods have a broadly elliptic or oblong shape and are long.[
]
Distribution
It is native to an area in the Wheatbelt region 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 is found among 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 ...
outcrops and boulders growing in pockets of sandy loamy soils.Wongan Hills
Wongan Hills is a range of low flat-topped hills in the Avon Wheatbelt bioregion of Western Australia. It is located at , in the Shire of Wongan–Ballidu.
History
The range was first recorded in 1836 by Surveyor General of Western Australia Jo ...
in the north west to Hyden in the south east where it is a part of scrubland communities.
See also
* List of ''Acacia'' species
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q9564668
fauntleroyi
Acacias of Western Australia
Taxa named by William Blakely
Taxa named by Joseph Maiden
Plants described in 1928