Acacia filifolia

Life-forms

Classification System: APG IV

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Regnum: Plantae
Cladus: Angiosperms
Cladus: Eudicots
Cladus: Core eudicots
Cladus: Rosids
Cladus: Eurosids I
Ordo: Fabales

Familia: Fabaceae
Subfamilia: Caesalpinioideae
Tribus: Acacieae
Genus: Acacia
Species: Acacia filifolia
Name

Acacia filifolia Benth.
References

London Journal of Botany. London 1:369. 1842
USDA, ARS, Germplasm Resources Information Network. Acacia filifolia in the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service. Accessed: 09-Oct-10.

Acacia filifolia is a shrub belonging to the genus Acacia and the subgenus Juliflorae that is endemic to western Australia.

Description

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

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

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

List of Acacia species

References

"Acacia filifolia". FloraBase. Western Australian Government Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.
"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.
Brown, Roland Wilbur (1956). The Composition of Scientific Words. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.