Acacia leptocarpa
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''Acacia leptocarpa'', commonly known as north coast wattle, is a shrub or small tree native to
New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...
and coastal regions of northern Australia.


Description

''Acacia leptocarpa '' normally grows as a small tree, in height but can reach as high as , although it occasionally flowers as a shrub as low as tall. It has dark grey to almost black coloured bark of the ‘ironbark’ type. The angular branchlets are lenticellate and glabrous. The phyllodes have
falcate The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular ...
shaped blades with a length of and a width of . the
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 ...
phyllodes have a visible gland on the upper margin with longitudinal and parallel veins, three of which are more prominent than the others. It also has small and inconspicuous
stipule In botany, a stipule is an outgrowth typically borne on both sides (sometimes on just one side) of the base of a leafstalk (the petiole). Stipules are considered part of the anatomy of the leaf of a typical flowering plant, although in many speci ...
s. It blooms from Autumn to Spring and produces pleasantly perfumed yellow coloured
inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphology (biology), Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of sperma ...
s on spikes that are around and found in groups of two in the leaf axils. After flowering it forms linear, curved or coiled
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 with a length of around and a width of . The shiny dark brown to black seeds within the pods are arranged longitudinally and have a length of around with a large yellow-orange aril. ''A. leptocarpa'' resembles '' Acacia cowleana'' and '' Acacia elachantha'' but has glabrous and thinner phyllodes and longer, more curved pods. It is thought to be allied with '' Acacia tropica'' and '' Acacia cretata''. The seed pods appear very similar to those of '' Acacia gardneri''.


Taxonomy

The species was first formally described by the 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 studie ...
in 1842 as part of William Jackson Hooker's work ''Notes on Mimoseae, with a synopsis of species'' as published in the ''London Journal of Botany''. It was reclassified as ''Racosperma leptocarpum'' 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 ...
in 1987 and transferred back to genus ''Acacia'' in 2001. The
type specimen In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes th ...
was collected by Allan Cunningham around Cape Flinders in Queensland in 1820. The specific epithet is derived from the Greek words ''leptos'' meaning ''slender'' and ''carpos'' meaning ''fruit'' in reference to the thin seed pods.


Distribution

It is mostly found in open forest, but will also grow in
monsoon forest Seasonal tropical forest, also known as moist deciduous, semi-evergreen seasonal, tropical mixed or monsoon forests, typically contain a range of tree species: only some of which drop some or all of their leaves during the dry season. This tropic ...
and rainforest margins. The natural range extends from
Carlton Hill Station Carlton Hill Station is a pastoral lease and cattle station located in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Situated approximately to the north-west of Kununurra and east of Wyndham, the station covers an area of . The property li ...
in the Kimberley 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 ...
eastwards across the
Top End The Top End of Australia's Northern Territory is a geographical region encompassing the northernmost section of the Northern Territory, which aside from the Cape York Peninsula is the northernmost part of the Australian continent. It covers a ra ...
of the
Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...
to
Cape York Peninsula Cape York Peninsula is a large peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is the largest unspoiled wilderness in northern Australia.Mittermeier, R.E. et al. (2002). Wilderness: Earth’s last wild places. Mexico City: Agrupació ...
and southwards to Southern
Central Queensland Central Queensland is an ambiguous geographical division of Queensland ( a state in Australia) that centres on the eastern coast, around the Tropic of Capricorn. Its major regional centre is Rockhampton. The region extends from the Capricorn Coas ...
where it is found along the margins of watercourses and swampy areas growing in sandy or rocky soils occasionally around laterite as a part of open ''
Eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as e ...
'' or '' Melaleuca'' woodland communities.


See also

* List of ''Acacia'' species


References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4670952 leptocarpa Flora of the Northern Territory Flora of Queensland Acacias of Western Australia Plants described in 1842 Taxa named by George Bentham Taxa named by Allan Cunningham (botanist)