Acacia filifolia
Acacia filifolia | |
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Scientific classification ![]() | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Fabales |
Family: | Fabaceae |
Subfamily: | Caesalpinioideae |
Clade: | Mimosoid clade |
Genus: | Acacia |
Species: | A. filifolia
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Binomial name | |
Acacia filifolia | |
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Occurrence data from AVH |
Acacia filifolia is a shrub belonging to the genus Acacia and the subgenus Juliflorae that is endemic to western Australia.
Description
[edit]The shrub is wispy and spindly and typically grows to a height of 1.2 to 3 metres (4 to 10 ft).[1] It is either single-stemmed or sparingly branched toward the base of the plant. The straight to slightly flexuose branchlets have resinous ribbing located at the subpendulous extremities. The slender yellow-green phyllodes are ascending and incurved with a quadrangular to subquadrangular shape. The phyllodes have a length of 10 to 25 cm (3.9 to 9.8 in) and a width of 0.7 to 1 mm (0.028 to 0.039 in) and are glabrous with eight broad nerves.[2] It blooms from May to September producing yellow flowers.[1] The simple inflorescences occur singly or in pairs in the axils and have spherical to obloid flower-heads with a length of 6 to 12 mm (0.24 to 0.47 in) and a diameter of 5 to 8 mm (0.20 to 0.31 in) with golden flowers. The linear seed pods that form after flowering have a maximum length of around 12 cm (4.7 in) and are 2.5 to 3 mm (0.098 to 0.118 in) in width. The hairy pods are firmly chartaceous with glabrous yellow coloured margins. The glossy, mottled grey-brown to brown seeds have an oblong-elliptic shape and a length of around 3 mm (0.12 in).[2]
Taxonomy
[edit]The species was first formally described by the botanist George Bentham 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 filifolium by Leslie Pedley in 2003 then transferred back to genus Acacia in 2006.[3] The specific epithet (filifolia) is derived from the Latin words filum meaning "thread"[4]: 797 and folium meaning "a leaf",[4]: 466 possibly referring to the slender phyllodes.
Distribution
[edit]It is native to an area in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia from around Coorow in the north west to around Southern Cross in the south west and has a scattered distribution. It is found on sand plains growing in gravelly to sandy soils around laterite[1] as a part of shrubland communities.[2]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c "Acacia filifolia". FloraBase. Western Australian Government Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.
- ^ a b c "Acacia filifolia Benth". Wattle - Acacias of Australia. Department of the Environment and Energy. Retrieved 6 August 2019.
- ^ "Acacia filifolia Benth". Atlas of Living Australia. Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Retrieved 6 August 2019.
- ^ a b Brown, Roland Wilbur (1956). The Composition of Scientific Words. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.