''Acacia redolens'', commonly known as bank catclaw, prostrate acacia, or desert carpet, is a shrub of 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 ''Plurinerves''.

Description

It is a dense, small to medium-sized shrub that usually reaches heights of 0.5 to 3, rarely up to 5 or even 7 meters. Vegetative parts of the plant and especially the yellow flowers give off an intense vanilla scent. The spreading fragrant shrub typically grows to a height of . It blooms from August to October in its native range, and produces yellow flowers. The small flowers, whose optical effect is based on the yellow

stamen The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filament ...

s, are located in the leaf

axil A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, fl ...

s. The brownish

legume Legumes are plants in the pea family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seeds of such plants. When used as a dry grain for human consumption, the seeds are also called pulses. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consum ...

s are about 25 millimeters long and about 6 millimeters wide. In

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, it blooms from February through May (late winter to late spring). It is commonly planted by freeways and is found throughout Southern California and some parts of the Bay Area.

Phylogeny

According to the

Catalogue of Life The Catalogue of Life (CoL) is an online database that provides an index of known species of animals, plants, fungi, and microorganisms. It was created in 2001 as a partnership between the global Species 2000 and the American Integrated Taxono ...

, ''Acacia'' contains 1067 species. A 2014 phylogenetic study of ''Acacia'' in Australia suggests the following phylogenetic relationships:

Distribution

It is native to an area along the southern coast in the Great Southern and Goldfields-Esperance regions of

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 plant is considered an invasive weed in areas of

where it was used as a fast growing groundcover along freeways. It is particularly problematic in the

San Gabriel Valley The San Gabriel Valley (), sometimes referred to by its initials as SGV, is one of the principal valleys of Southern California, with the city of Los Angeles directly bordering it to the west and occupying the vast majority of the southeastern ...

and

Mission Valley Mission Valley is a wide river valley trending east–west in San Diego, California, United States, through which the San Diego River flows to the Pacific Ocean. For planning purposes the City of San Diego divides it into two neighborhoods: Mi ...

. ''Acacia redolens'' thrives on salty or

alkaline In chemistry, an alkali (; from the Arabic word , ) is a basic salt of an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal. An alkali can also be defined as a base that dissolves in water. A solution of a soluble base has a pH greater than 7.0. The ...

loamy, clayey, clayey-loamy or sandy soils and can be used as a

groundcover Groundcover or ground cover is any plant that grows low over an area of ground, which protects the topsoil from erosion and drought. In a terrestrial ecosystem, the ground cover forms the layer of vegetation below the shrub layer known as the ...

. It occurs on the edges of salt lakes or in salty depressions and can withstand frost down to −7 °C.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2510405 redolens Acacias of Western Australia Taxa named by Bruce Maslin Plants described in 1974

Description

Phylogeny

Distribution

See also

External links

References