''Acacia rhodoxylon'', also known as rosewood, ringy rosewood
[ or spear wattle,]
Description
The tree typically grows to a height of [ with a main stem that is in diameter. The stem as well as the branches are usually fluted in appearance. The heartwood is a deep dark brown to red brown colour while the lighter sapwood is creamy white.][ It has dark brown to grey coloured bark that peels off in small curved flakes resembling to ]minni ritchi Minni ritchi bark on an acacia in the Pilbara region of Western Australia Minni ritchi bark of ''Eucalyptus crucis'' near Wongan Hills
Minni ritchi is a type of reddish-brown bark that continuously peels in small curly flakes, leaving the tre ...
type species.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 ...
branchlets that are angled upwards. Like most species of ''Acacia'' it has phyllodes rather than true leaves. The glabrous and coriaceous evergreen phyllodes are quite resinous when young. They have a narrowly elliptic to oblanceolate shape and are usually inequilateral with a convex upper margin and a straight lower margin and can be shallowly sickle shaped. The phyllodes are in length and wide with many mostly indistinct nerves with the exception of three to five nerves that are a little more prominent than the others.[ It flowers sporadically throughout the year producing yellow coloured flowers.][ The simple ]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 singly or in pairs on long glabrous stalks. The cylindrical flower-spikes have a length of and a packed with yellow flowers spikes 2–3 cm long. After flowering glabrous, thinly coriaceous-crustaceous 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 that are slightly resinous. The pods age to a brown colour and have a narrowly oblong shape with a length of and a width of with longitudinally to obliquely arranged seeds inside. The shiny brown seeds have a widely elliptic shape with a length of and a small aril.[
]
Taxonomy
The species was first formally described by the botanist Joseph Maiden
Joseph Henry Maiden (25 April 1859 – 16 November 1925) was a botanist who made a major contribution to knowledge of the Australian flora, especially the genus ''Eucalyptus''. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation when citing ...
in 1920 as part of the work ''Notes on Acacias, with descriptions of new species'' as published in the ''Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales''. It was reclassified as ''Racosperma rhodoxylon'' in 1987 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 ...
and then transferred back to genus ''Acacia'' in 2001.
Distribution
It 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 else ...
along the east coast of central Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, establishe ...
where it is found from around Eidsvold in the south to around Clermont in the north with another disjunct population near Mount Garnett further north where it is a part of ''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 ...
'' woodland communities.[ It is often situated in hilly areas or undulating plains in the eastern part of the ]brigalow
''Acacia harpophylla'', commonly known as brigalow, brigalow spearwood or orkor, is an endemic tree of Australia. The Aboriginal Australian group the Gamilaraay peoples know the tree as Barranbaa or Burrii. It is found in central and coast ...
belt where it grows in skeletal sandy to clay soils with poor fertility where it is a part of open forest.
Uses
The tree produces a quality and attractive timber but was historically used for fencing as the wood is termite
Termites are small insects that live in colonies and have distinct castes (eusocial) and feed on wood or other dead plant matter. Termites comprise the infraorder Isoptera, or alternatively the epifamily Termitoidae, within the order Blatto ...
resistant.[ It has decorative uses as a turned wood, in ]xylophones
The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Like the glockenspiel (which uses metal bars), the xylophone essentially consists of a set of tuned wooden keys arranged in ...
and for parts of violins as a substitute for ebony and in sporting goods requiring straight grained timber.[
]
See also
* List of ''Acacia'' species
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q15288891
rhodoxylon
Flora of Queensland
Taxa named by Joseph Maiden
Plants described in 1920