Koolanooka Delicate wattle facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Koolanooka Delicate wattle |
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|---|---|
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Genus: |
Acacia
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| Species: |
graciliformis
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Acacia graciliformis, also known as Koolanooka Delicate wattle, is a shrub of the genus Acacia and the subgenus Plurinerves that is endemic to a small area in western Australia.
Description
The shrub typically grows to a height of 1 to 3 metres (3 to 10 ft) and has an openly branched and spreading habit with slender and contorted stems and hairy branchlets that become glabrous with age. Like most species of Acacia it has phyllodes rather than true leaves .They are found on raised stem projections and are shallowly to moderately recurved with a length of 7 to 25 mm (0.28 to 0.98 in) and a width of 0.7 to 1 mm (0.028 to 0.039 in) and end with a straight, pungent and rigid tip. It blooms in September and produces simple inflorescences that occur singly or in pairs in the axils with spherical flower-heads that have a diameter of 3 to 4 mm (0.12 to 0.16 in) and contain 11 to 18 light golden coloured flowers. Following flowering seed pods form that have a linear to narrowly oblong shape and are moderately to strongly curved and sometimes coiled. The firmly chartaceous pods are 3.5 to 6.5 cm (1.4 to 2.6 in) in length and have a width of 3 to 3.5 mm (0.12 to 0.14 in). The glossy dark brown seeds inside have an oblong elliptic shape with a white aril.
Taxonomy
The species was first formally described by the botanists Bruce Maslin and Carrie Buscumb in 2007 as a part of the work Two new species of Acacia (Leguminosae: Mimosoideae) from the Koolanooka Hills in the northern wheatbelt region of south-west Western Australia as published in the journal Nuytsia.
Distribution
It is native to a small area in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia where it commonly situated on gentle slopes on low hills and around rocky outcrops of basalt or ironstone growing in stony clay loam soils. The range of the species is confined to a small area to the east of Morawa where it is found in two main populations, on in the Koolanooka Hills and the other about 10 km (6.2 mi) to the south east in the Perenjori Hills and is usually a part of open woodland and mallee shrubland communities.
