Acacia laricina facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Acacia laricina |
|
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Genus: |
Acacia
|
| Species: |
laricina
|
 |
|
| Acacia laricina occurrence data from Australasian Virtual Herbarium | |
Acacia laricina is a shrub belonging to the genus Acacia and the subgenus Phyllodineae that is endemic to south western Australia.
Description
The shrub typically grows to a height of 0.25 to 0.5 metres (0.8 to 1.6 ft) and can have a dense or spreading or domed habit. It has branchlets that can be covered in a fine, white powdery coating anf are hairy at the extremities with linear to triangular stipules that are 3 to 6 mm (0.12 to 0.24 in) in length. Like most species of Acacia it has phyllodes rather than true leaves. The evergreen phyllodes are crowded and appear to be continuous with the branchlets. They are straight to shallowly curved with a pentagonal cross-section and a length 15 to 50 mm (0.59 to 1.97 in) and a width of 0.7 to 1.7 mm (0.028 to 0.067 in) with five prominent nerves. It produces cream-yellow flowers from October to November. The simple inflorescences occur singly in the axils an have sperical flower-heads that contain 17 to 30 cream to pale yellow coloured flowers. Following flowering thinly coriaceous seed pods are formed. The red-brown pods have a length up to around 4.5 cm (1.8 in) and a width of 2 to 4 mm (0.079 to 0.157 in) and are curved and coarsely striated. The subshiny brown seeds inside have an oblong to oblong-elliptic shape with a length of 3.5 to 4 mm (0.14 to 0.16 in) ans a conical terminal aril.
Taxonomy
There are two recognized varieties:
- Acacia laricina var. crassifolia
- Acacia laricina var. laricina
Distribution
It is native to an area in the southern Wheatbelt, Great Southern and Goldfields-Esperance regions of Western Australia where it has an uneven distribution from around Nyabing in the north west to around Ravensthorpe in the south east. It is commonly situated on flats, stony ridges, on granite hills and among granite outcrops growing in loamy and gravelly soils often over laterite.
