''Acacia linifolia'', known colloquially as white wattle, or flax wattle, is a species of ''

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 ...

'' native to eastern Australia.

Description

The shrub typically grows to a height of and has an erect or spreading habit with greyish coloured smooth or finely fissured bark and

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, ...

or sometimes hairy, finely ridges branchlets that are angled towards the apices. Like most species of ''Acacia'' it has

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 rather than true leaves. The glabrous and evergreen phyllodes have a more or less linear shape with a length of and a width of and have a prominent midvein. The

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 in groups of 5 to 17 in an axillary

raceme A raceme () or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate growth, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are ...

and have spherical flower-heads with a diameter of containing 6 to 12 pale yellow to white coloured flowers. The glabrous, thinly leathery

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 that form after flowering are often covered in a fine white powdery coating and are straight or curved and more or less flat but are raised over the seeds. The pods are in length and wide. and contain longitudinally arranged seeds.

Taxonomy

''Acacia linifolia'' was first described in 1800 by

Étienne Pierre Ventenat Étienne Pierre Ventenat (1 March 1757 – 13 August 1808) was a French botanist born in Limoges. He was the brother of naturalist Louis Ventenat (1765–1794). While employed as director of the ecclesiastic library Sainte-Geneviève in Paris, ...

as ''Mimosa linifolia''.Ventenat, E.P. (1800
Description des Plantes Nouvelles et peu connues, cultivees dans le Jardin de J.M. Cels 1: 2t. 2
/ref> In 1806

Carl Ludwig Willdenow Carl Ludwig Willdenow (22 August 1765 – 10 July 1812) was a German botanist, pharmacist, and plant Taxonomy (biology), taxonomist. He is considered one of the founders of phytogeography, the study of the geographic distribution of plants. ...

redescribed it as belonging to the genus, ''

'', and it became ''Acacia linifolia''. The

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

is in reference to the shape of the phyllodes that are similar to the leaves of

flax Flax, also known as common flax or linseed, is a flowering plant, ''Linum usitatissimum'', in the family Linaceae. It is cultivated as a food and fiber crop in regions of the world with temperate climates. In 2022, France produced 75% of t ...

plants. The species is quite similar in appearance to '' Acacia boormanii'' and ''

Acacia meiantha ''Acacia meiantha'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and the subgenus ''Phyllodineae'' that is endemic to a small area in eastern Australia. It was listed as Endangered in 2018 according to the ''Environment Protection and B ...

''.

Distribution

It is found in

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

and has a range that extends from around the

Hunter Valley The Hunter Region, also commonly known as the Hunter Valley, Newcastle Region, or simply Hunter, spans the region in northern New South Wales, Australia, extending from approximately to north of Sydney. It contains the Hunter River and its ...

in the north down to around the Hill Top area and is quite common around Sydney. It is usually found as a part of dry

sclerophyll forest Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaves, short internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem) and leaf orientation which is parallel or oblique to direct ...

or heathland or open, woodland communities growing in skeletal sandy soils over or around

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

or in clay soils over or around

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of Clay mineral, clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g., Kaolinite, kaolin, aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4) and tiny f ...

Traditional use

''Acacia linifolia'' is featured in the dreaming stories Doo’ragai Diday Boo’kerrikin (The Sisters Boo’kerrikin) and Bundalook (How the Birds got their Colours) of the D'harawal people.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q9566393 linifolia Fabales of Australia Flora of New South Wales Plants described in 1800 Taxa named by Carl Ludwig Willdenow Taxa named by Étienne Pierre Ventenat

Description

Taxonomy

Distribution

Traditional use

See also

References