Acacia besleyi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Bes' wattle | |
|---|---|
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. besleyi |
| Binomial name | |
| Acacia besleyi | |
Acacia besleyi, also known as Bes' wattle,[2] is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to a small area near Ravensthorpe in the south-west of Western Australia. It is a rounded, often bushy shrub with linear, thinly leathery phyllodes, spherical heads of yellow flowers and narrowly oblong pods up to 30 mm (1.2 in) long.
Acacia besleyi is a rounded, or inverted cone-shaped, often bushy shrub 1–3 m (3 ft 3 in – 9 ft 10 in) high, with linear, thinly leathery phyllodes 40–85 mm (1.6–3.3 in) long and 2–3 mm (0.079–0.118 in) wide with triangular stipules up to 0.5 mm (0.020 in) long at the base. There are three to five parallel veins, and a gland 1–3 mm (0.039–0.118 in) above the base of the phyllodes. One or two spherical heads of flowers are borne in axils on peduncles 5–8 mm (0.20–0.31 in) long, the heads are about 5 mm (0.20 in) in diameter with 15 to 22 yellow flowers. Flowering mostly occurs in October, and the pods are thinly leathery to crust-like, narrowly oblong, 10–30 mm (0.39–1.18 in) long and 3.5–5 mm (0.14–0.20 in) wide, containing oblong seeds 2.8–3.5 mm (0.11–0.14 in) long with a white, club-shaped aril.[3][4]
Taxonomy
Acacia besleyi was first formally described in 2014 by Bruce Maslin in the journal Nuytsia from specimens he collected south of Ravensthorpe in 2013.[3][5] The specific epithet (besleyi) honours Laurie Besley ("Bes"), a "distinguished scientist with CSIRO in Sydney and director of the National Measurement Institute in Sydney".