Acacia blaxellii
Acacia blaxellii, also known as Blaxell's wattle, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to inland areas of the south-west of Western Australia. It is a spreading, dense shrub with narrowly oblong to oblong phyllodes, spherical heads of golden-yellow flowers, and thinly leathery, wavy to ring-shaped or S-shaped pods.
Description
Acacia blaxellii' is dense, spreading shrub that typically grows to a high and up to wide and has densely hairy branchlets. Its phyllodes are more or less erect, straight and narrowly oblong to oblong, thick and fleshy, long and wide and [wikt|glabrous|] except at the base. The flowers are borne in two spherical heads on a peduncle long, each head in diameter with 17 to 31 golden-yellow flowers. Flowering has been recorded from August to October, and the pods are glabrous, thinly leathery, wavy to ring-shaped or S-shaped up to long and wide, with broadly elliptic, glossy black seeds about long with a white, linear to club-shaped aril.
Taxonomy
Acacia blaxellii was first formally described in 1999 by the botanist Bruce Maslin in the journal Nuytsia from specimens he collected south of Queen Victoria Rock on the road to Hyden. The specific epithet honours Don Blaxell, who discovered the species.
Distribution and habitat
This species of wattle grows in clay on flat land or in loam on low rocky hills, mainly between Frank Hann National Park and McDermid Rock about west of Norseman, but also near Hyden and Norseman, in the Coolgardie and Mallee bioregions in inland parts of the south-west of Western Australia.
Conservation status
Acacia blaxellii is listed as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.