Acacia dealbata |
Acacia |
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blue wattle, silver wattle |
acacia, wattle |
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Habit | Shrubs or trees, erect, to 30 m. Twigs dark purplish brown to black, slightly flexuous, ridged, pruinose, densely puberulent. | Shrubs or trees [rarely vines], usually unarmed, stipular spines present on A. paradoxa. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stems | erect to ascending or pendulous, glabrous or pubescent; twigs not flexuous or slightly so, terete to angled or ridged, short shoots usually absent. |
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Leaves | compound, 80–170 mm; petiole 8–22 mm, densely puberulent, gland present, below proximalmost pinna pair, 0.5–1 mm diam., puberulent; rachis gland between most pinna pairs; pinnae 6–30 pairs, 15–55 mm, 2–7 mm between pinna pairs; leaflets 15–70 pairs per pinna, blades linear, 2–5 × 0.4–0.8 mm, base cuneate, apex obtuse to acute, not apiculate, surfaces densely puberulent. |
alternate (except fascicled or whorled in A. verticillata), even-bipinnate or phyllodic, leaves often modified (in age) to polymorphic phyllodes (enlarged, flattened petiole without leaflets), usually glandular on margins and/or apex, saplings often with even-pinnate juvenile leaves often not present at maturity; stipules usually present, usually early deciduous, rarely woody, spinose; petiolate, usually with 1 globose gland; pinnae [1 or] 2–31[–50] pairs, mostly opposite; leaflets 8–70 pairs per pinna, opposite, sessile or subsessile, blade margins entire, surfaces glabrous or pubescent. |
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Inflorescences | globose heads, densely flowered, 6–9 mm diam., in axillary pseudoracemes of 11–30 heads or terminal pseudopanicles of 1–15 pseudoracemes. |
20–200+-flowered, terminal or axillary, globose heads or cylindrical spikes, heads solitary, fascicled, or clustered, or arranged in pseudoracemes or pseudopanicles; bracts present. |
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Peduncles | 2–6 mm. |
usually not elongated in fruit, glabrous or pubescent. |
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Flowers | 5-merous, pale yellow to cream; calyx 0.6–1.1 mm; corolla 1.4–2 mm; filaments 3.5–4.5 mm; ovary glabrous. |
mimosoid; calyx cup-shaped, lobes 4 or 5, triangular, glabrous [pubescent]; corolla yellow to cream, cup-shaped, lobes 4 or 5, triangular, membranous, glabrous [pubescent]; stamens 20–150, rarely connate basally, usually exserted, mostly yellow to gold or creamy white; anthers dorsifixed, mostly eglandular; ovary sessile or short-stipitate; style and stigma filiform. |
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Fruits | legumes, erect to pendulous, stipitate, stipe usually relatively short, mostly flat, straight to falcate, linear to oblong, apex sometimes beaked, usually dehiscent along sutures, dry, papery to leathery, glabrous or pubescent. |
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Legumes | flattened, oblong, 20–110 × 6–14 mm, constricted between some seeds. |
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Seeds | aril light yellow, obovate, 2–3 mm, forming cap on seed. |
usually 6–10, usually flattened, ellipsoid to ovoid, uniseriate, usually with pulpy, bright-colored aril, forming a cap or encircling seed. |
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x | = 13. |
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2n | = 26. |
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Acacia dealbata |
Acacia |
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Phenology | Flowering winter, early spring. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Disturbed areas. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 0–300 m. (0–1000 ft.) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
CA; se Australia [Introduced in North America; introduced also in s South America]
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Indian Ocean Islands; Pacific Islands (Kei Islands, New Guinea); Australia [Introduced in North America; introduced also in South America; introduced elsewhere in tropical and subtropical regions] |
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Discussion | Acacia dealbata is known from Butte, Los Angeles, Marin, Monterey, Napa, Riverside, Sacramento, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Bernardino, and San Diego counties. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Species ca. 1300 (15 in the flora). Acacia species are indigenous mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with more than 950 in Australia. None is native to the New World. To preserve as much current usage as possible, at the 17th International Botanical Congress in 2005, the type of the genus Acacia was changed from Acacia scorpioides (Linnaeus) W. Wright to the Australian species Acacia penninervis Sieber ex de Candolle (B. R. Maslin 2008; J. McNeill and N. J. Turland 2010). Presently, there is considerable evidence that the broadly defined genus Acacia is not a natural or monophyletic group (Gill. K. Brown et al. 2008). Therefore, plants of the former Acacia subg. Phyllodineae remain in the genus Acacia (Maslin et al. 2003; Maslin 2008), and other species of the traditional Acacia are transferred to the genera Acaciella, Mariosousa, Parasenegalia Seigler & Ebinger, Pseudosenegalia Seigler & Ebinger, Senegalia, and Vachellia. Members of Acacia enumerated here are introduced, exotic species proven to be adventive in the United States by vouchered collections; most are restricted to Arizona, southern California, and Florida. In addition, many Australian Acacia species are cultivated in botanical gardens and plant introduction centers and as ornamentals in the nursery trade. Although not clearly established to be adventive, other Acacia species may occasionally be found outside of cultivation; D. Isely (1973) mentioned a few of these, including A. podalyriifolia A. Cunningham ex G. Don, reported from a non-cultivated stand on Santa Catalina Island, California, and more recently from Orange County. Naturalized individuals of A. salicina Lindley and A. stenophylla A. Cunningham ex Bentham are known from Maricopa County, Arizona (ASU). Acacia iteaphylla F. Mueller ex Bentham is naturalized on the University of California-Riverside campus and is possibly invasive (Sanders & Morgan 21588, UCR). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 11. | FNA vol. 11. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Fabaceae > subfam. Caesalpinioideae (Mimosoid clade) > Acacia | Fabaceae > subfam. Caesalpinioideae (Mimosoid clade) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Name authority | Link: Enum. Hort. Berol. Alt. 2: 445. (1822) | Miller: Gard. Dict. Abr. ed. 4, vol. 1. (1754) — name conserved | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Web links |