Acacia calligera

Acacia calligera is a spreading, glabrous shrub that typically grows to a height of 0.5 to 1.5 m (1 ft 8 in to 4 ft 11 in) and has sticky, ribbed branchlets. Its phyllodes are mostly egg-shaped to elliptic or oblong, often with the lower margin more or less straight and the upper margin convex, 3–20 mm (0.12–0.79 in) long and 2–8 mm (0.079–0.315 in) wide. The phyllodes have five to seven widely spaced veins and a beak-shaped point usually on the edge. The flowers are sulfur yellow to golden yellow and borne in spikes 10–35 mm (0.39–1.38 in) long on a peduncle mostly 5–10 mm (0.20–0.39 in) long. Flowering occurs between February and August and the pods are more or less narrowly lance-shaped and flat sided, crust-like to more or less woody, 20–90 mm (0.79–3.54 in) long and brown to dark brown seeds 3.0–3.5 mm (0.12–0.14 in) long with a narrowly top-shaped aril.^[2][3][4]

This species was first formally described in 2003 by Leslie Pedley who gave it the name Racesperma calligerum in the journal Austrobaileya,^[5][6] but in 2006 transferred the species to Acacia as Acacia calligera.^[7] The specific epithet (calligera) mean 'callus-bearing', referring to the beak-shaped point near the end of the phyllodes.^[8]

Acacia calligera often grows in read sand or clay, or in laterite in shrubland or open woodland with a grassy understorey or ridges, escarpment or plains, sometimes forming dense thickets. It occurs in the Central Kimberley, Dampierland and Ord Victoria Plain bioregions of Western Australia,^[9] the Barkly Tableland and Katherine Regions in the top end of the Northern Territory^[10] and the Normanton area of Queensland.^[2]