''Acacia latior'' is a shrub 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 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 multi-stemmed shrub typically grows to a height of and has a rounded to obconic habit. It tends to have a dense and compact crown with sparingly fluted stems. The smooth or finely fissured bark is a brown-grey colour. It has densely silver to white hairy new shoots. The glabrous branchlets are obscurely ribbed and angular or flattened at extremities. The flat, grey-green to green coloured

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 oblanceolate to linear-elliptic shape and are straight to shallowly incurved. The pungent phyllodes have a length of and a width of with numerous longitudinal nerves that are close together. 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 most often in pairs on each

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 ...

, the widely ellipsoid to obloidal shaped flower-heads are in length and have a diameter of and are packed with golden coloured flowers. The straight to slightly curved

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 have a length of and a width of The shiny brown seeds within the pods are arranged longitudinally and have an oblong shape with a length of and a white

aril An aril (pronounced ), also called an arillus, is a specialized outgrowth from a seed that partly or completely covers the seed. An arillode or false aril is sometimes distinguished: whereas an aril grows from the attachment point of the see ...

Distribution

It is native to an area in the

Mid West The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...

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 ...

. It is commonly found around Mullewa with scattered populations around Gnows Nest and the Blue Hill ranges and around Karara and Warriedar stations. The shrub is often situated on sandplains and gravelly rises growing in sandy, rocky clay or loamy soils as a part of shrubland or scrub communities and is often associated with mallee style '' Eucalytps'' and other species of ''Acacia''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15489861 latior Acacias of Western Australia Plants described in 2008 Taxa named by Bruce Maslin

Description

Distribution

See also

References