Acacia abbreviata
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| Acacia abbreviata | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Specimen collected on the Tanami Track | |
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. abbreviata |
| Binomial name | |
| Acacia abbreviata | |
 | |
| Occurrence data from Australasian Virtual Herbarium | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
|
Racosperma abbreviatum (Maslin) Pedley | |
Acacia abbreviata is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to arid parts of northern Australia. It is a spreading, glabrous, resinous shrub with linear to narrowly oblong phyllodes, spike of golden flowers, and linear to lance-shaped pods.
The resinous shrub has a spreading habit and typically grows to a height of 0.3 to 0.6 m (1 ft 0 in to 2 ft 0 in) with a width of 1 to 3.6 m (3 ft 3 in to 11 ft 10 in). The generally smooth pale grey-brown coloured bark is minutely fissured. The angular yellow to red-brown branchlets have small resinous hairs and obscure ridges. The linear green phyllodes occur in groups of six at the nodes. They have a narrowly oblong or narrowly oblanceolate shape and a length of 0.4 to 2.5 cm (0.16 to 0.98 in) and a width of 0.6 to 1.2 mm (0.024 to 0.047 in) with indistinct nerves. It blooms between April and October producing cylindrical flower-spikes with a length of 0.7 to 2 cm (0.28 to 0.79 in) packed with golden coloured flowers. The flat and sub-woody seed pods that form after flowering have a linear-oblanceolate shape that tapers toward the base. The pods are 2.5 to 6.5 cm (0.98 to 2.56 in) in length and 3 to 5 mm (0.12 to 0.20 in) wide, have prominent margins and open elastically from the apex. The seeds inside are arranged obliquely to longitudinally. The brown seeds have a narrowly oblong shape and a length of 3 to 4.5 mm (0.12 to 0.18 in) and have a narrowly turbinate aril.[2][3]
Taxonomy
Acacia abbreviata was first formally described in 1980 by the botanist Bruce Maslin in the Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens from a specimen collected by John Richard Maconochie (as Acacia amentifera) in the Tanami Desert in 1970.[4][5] It was reclassified as Racosperma abbreviatum in 2003 by Leslie Pedley in the journal Austrobaileya,[6] then transferred back to genus Acacia in 2006.[1] The specific epithet (abbreviata) means "shortened", referring to the very short phyllodes.[5][7]