Biology:Acacia araneosa

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Short description: Species of plant

Balcanoona Wattle
Scientific classification edit
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Caesalpinioideae
Clade: Mimosoid clade
Genus: Acacia
Species:
A. araneosa
Binomial name
Acacia araneosa
Whibley
Acacia araneosaDistMap59.png

Acacia araneosa, commonly known as Balcanoona wattle or spidery wattle, is a shrub belonging to the genus Acacia and the subgenus Phyllodineae that is native to South Australia.

Description

The erect, small and wispy shrub that typically grows to a height of 3 to 8 metres (10 to 26 ft). It blooms irregularly throughout the year and produces yellow flowers.[1] It has slender, glabrous flexuose, red-brown coloured branchlets. The pendulous, thickly filiform phyllodes are usually terete to quadrangular. The phyllodes have a length of 18 to 35 cm (7.1 to 13.8 in) but can be as long as 69 cm (27 in) and have a width of 1 to 2 mm (0.039 to 0.079 in) and narrow to the apex.[2]

Taxonomy

The species was first formally described by the botanist D.J.E. Whibley in the 1976 work by Whibley and B.J. Walby Acacia araneosa (Fabaceae subfam. Mimosoideae), a new species from South Australia as published in the Contributions from the Herbarium Australiense. It was reclassified as Racosperma araneosum in 2003 then transferred back to the genus Acacia in 2005.[3]

Distribution

It has a limited distribution in arid conditions of central South Australia in the northern Flinders Range from Balcanoona to Arkaroola where it is found on rocky slopes, ridges and hills in skeletal soils[1] over Skillogallee dolamite, reputed to be highly magnesic. It is often a part of open woodland or shrubland communities along with Eucalyptus gillii and Triodia irritans.[2]

See also

References

Wikidata ☰ Q9562247 entry