''Acacia intorta'' is a shrub or tree belonging to the genus ''

Acacia ''Acacia'', commonly known as wattles or acacias, is a genus of about of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa, South America, and Austral ...

'' and the subgenus ''Juliflorae'' that is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to arid parts of central

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. The tree has a gnarled appearance and typically grows to a height of with fissured and fibrous grey coloured bark. It has contorted main branches and tend to spread horizontally and has

glabrous Glabrousness () is the technical term for a lack of hair, down, setae, trichomes, or other such covering. A glabrous surface may be a natural characteristic of all or part of a plant or animal, or be due to loss because of a physical condition, ...

branchlets. The erect, evergreen

phyllode Phyllodes are modified petiole (botany), petioles or leaf stems, which are leaf-like in appearance and function. In some plants, these become flattened and widened, while the leaf itself becomes reduced or vanishes altogether. Thus the phyllode co ...

s are straight and most often terete. The pungent, rigid phyllodes have a length of and a width of and are indistinctly multistriate. It blooms from April to June producing yellow flowers. The rudimentary

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

s occur as flower-spikes with a length of and are not densely flowered. The narrowly oblong

seed pod This page provides a glossary of plant morphology. Botanists and other biologists who study plant morphology use a number of different terms to classify and identify plant organs and parts that can be observed using no more than a handheld magnify ...

s have a length of and a width of . The dark brown seeds inside the pods have an elliptic to oblong shape and are in length. It is native to an area in the

Pilbara The Pilbara () is a large, dry, sparsely populated regions of Western Australia, region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal people; wealth disparity; its ancient landscapes; the prevailing r ...

and Goldfields regions of

with the bulk of the population found between Meekatharra and

Newman Newman is a surname of Germanic Anglo-Saxon origins. Newman is the modern English form of the name used in Great Britain and among people of British ancestry around the world (as is 'Numan'), while Neumann (with variant spellings) is used in Ger ...

where it is found on stony ridges, shape slopes and saline drainage floors where it grows in

calcrete Caliche () is a soil accumulation of soluble calcium carbonate at depth, where it precipitates and binds other materials—such as gravel, sand, clay, and silt. It occurs worldwide, in aridisol and mollisol soil orders—generally in arid or s ...

and alkaline clay soils.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15287417 intorta Acacias of Western Australia Plants described in 1983 Taxa named by Bruce Maslin

See also

References