''Acacia linifolia'', known colloquially as white wattle, or flax wattle, is a species of ''
Acacia'' native to eastern
Australia.
Description
The shrub typically grows to a height of and has an erect or spreading habit with greyish coloured smooth or finely fissured bark and
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 ...
or sometimes hairy, finely ridges branchlets that are angled towards the apices. Like most species of ''Acacia'' it has
phyllodes rather than true leaves. The glabrous and evergreen phyllodes have a more or less linear shape with a length of and a width of and have a prominent midvein. The
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 occur in groups of 5 to 17 in an axillary
raceme and have spherical flower-heads with a diameter of containing 6 to 12 pale yellow to white coloured flowers. The glabrous, thinly leathery
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 often covered in a fine white powdery coating and are straight or curved and more or less flat but are raised over the seeds. The pods are in length and wide. and contain longitudinally arranged seeds.
[
]
Taxonomy
''Acacia linifolia'' was first described in 1800 by 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 ...
as ''Mimosa linifolia''.[Ventenat, E.P. (1800]
Description des Plantes Nouvelles et peu connues, cultivees dans le Jardin de J.M. Cels 1: 2t. 2
/ref> In 1806 Carl Ludwig Willdenow
Carl Ludwig Willdenow (22 August 1765 – 10 July 1812) was a German botanist, pharmacist, and plant taxonomist. He is considered one of the founders of phytogeography, the study of the geographic distribution of plants. Willdenow was al ...
redescribed it as belonging to the genus, '' Acacia'', and it became ''Acacia linifolia''.[
]
Distribution
It is found in New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
and has a range that extends from around the Hunter Valley
The Hunter Region, also commonly known as the Hunter Valley, is a region of New South Wales, Australia, extending from approximately to north of Sydney. It contains the Hunter River and its tributaries with highland areas to the north and ...
in the north down to around the Hill Top area and is quite common around Sydney. It is usually found as a part of dry sclerophyll forest
Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaves, short internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem) and leaf orientation which is parallel or oblique to direct ...
or heathland or open, woodland communities growing in skeletal sandy soils over or around sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...
or in clay soils over or around shale.[
]
See also
* List of ''Acacia'' species
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q9566393
linifolia
Fabales of Australia
Flora of New South Wales
Plants described in 1800
Taxa named by Carl Ludwig Willdenow