''Acacia microbotrya'', commonly known as manna wattle or gum wattle,
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 ''Phyllodineae'' that is native to Western Australia.
The
Noongar
The Noongar (, also spelt Noongah, Nyungar , Nyoongar, Nyoongah, Nyungah, Nyugah, and Yunga ) are Aboriginal Australian people who live in the South West, Western Australia, south-west corner of Western Australia, from Geraldton, Western Aus ...
peoples know the tree as Badjong, Galyang, Koonert or Menna.
Description
The bushy shrub or tree typically grows to a height of
[ with the canopy spreading to a width of .][ It has glabrous branchlets with rough brown bark on the stem. The patent to pendulous grey-green ]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 have a narrowly elliptic to oblanceolate shape. Each olive green glabrous phyllode is and are wide.[ 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 are racemose
A raceme () or racemoid is an unbranched, 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 produced as the shoo ...
with the axes having a length of , the cream to pale yellow globular heads containing 20 to 30 flowers have a diameter of . Following flowering dark brown to blackish glabrous 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 form are constricted at regular intervals resembling a string of beads in shape with a length of and a width of . The shiny black seeds have an oblong to elliptic shape with a length of and a width of .[
]
Taxonomy
The species was first formally described by the botanist
Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...
George Bentham
George Bentham (22 September 1800 – 10 September 1884) was an English botanist, described by the weed botanist Duane Isely as "the premier systematic botanist of the nineteenth century". Born into a distinguished family, he initially studie ...
in 1842 as part of William Jackson Hooker
Sir William Jackson Hooker (6 July 178512 August 1865) was an English botany, botanist and botanical illustrator, who became the first director of Kew Gardens, Kew when in 1841 it was recommended to be placed under state ownership as a botan ...
's work ''Notes on Mimoseae, with a synopsis of species'' as published in the ''London Journal of Botany''. It was reclassified as ''Racosperma microbotryum'' in 2003 by Leslie Pedley
Leslie Pedley (19 May 1930 – 27 November 2018)IPNILeslie Pedley/ref> was an Australian botanist who specialised in the genus ''Acacia''. He is notable for bringing into use the generic name ''Racosperma'', creating a split in the genus, which r ...
then transferred back to the genus ''Acacia'' in 2014.Acacia saligna
''Acacia saligna'', commonly known by various names including coojong, golden wreath wattle, willow wattle, orange wattle, blue-leafed wattle, Western Australian golden wattle, and, in Africa, Port Jackson willow, is a small tree in the family ...
''.[
There are two recognised variations:
*''Acacia microbotrya var. borealis''
*''Acacia microbotrya var. microbotrya''][
]
Distribution
It is native to an area in the Wheatbelt, 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 ...
where it grows among rocky outcrops, near watercourses, around salt lakes and along road verges in clay loam or sandy loam soils often over granite
Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...
.Lake King
Lake King is a town in the eastern Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, from Perth along State Route 40 between Ravensthorpe and Newdegate. As of 2016, the town had a population of 95. The 2011 census recorded both the population of the t ...
.[
]
Cultivation
The plant is commercially available in seed form or as tubestock Tubestock is the plural term for young plants which have been grown to the point where they are ready for either planting out in the field or potting on to larger pot sizes. Smaller, shallower pots (approx. 50 mm in diameter x 80 mm deep) are usuall ...
. It is commonly used in native gardens as in land rehabilitation
Land rehabilitation as a part of environmental remediation is the process of returning the land in a given area to some degree of its former state, after some process ( industry, natural disasters, etc.) has resulted in its damage. Many project ...
an ornamental, as a windbreak, for shelter and for sandalwood. It is fast growing is salt tolerant and will survive in waterlogged areas.
See also
* List of ''Acacia'' species
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q9566906
microbotrya
Acacias of Western Australia
Plants described in 1842
Taxa named by George Bentham