Acacia chamaeleon
Acacia chamaeleon is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is an openly crowned, sparingly-branched, glabrous shrub with narrowly linear to thread-like or lance-shaped phyllodes with the narrower end towards the base, spherical heads of more or less golden yellow flowers, and linear, firmly papery to thinly leathery pods.
Description
Acacia chamaeleon is an openly crowned shrub that typically grows to a height of up to. It is single-stemmed or sparingly branched near ground level. The phyllodes are variable in shape and size, mostly narrowly linear to thread-like, or lance-shaped to narrowly lance-shaped with the narrower end towards the base long and wide. The flowers are borne a spherical heads in four to seven racemes long, on peduncles mostly long. Each head is in diameter with 23 to 37 more or less golden yellow flowers. Flowering occurs throughout the year with peaks in May and December, and the pods are linear, firmly papery to thinly leathery, scarcely constricted between the seeds, up to long and wide. The seeds are oblong to elliptic, long with a club-shaped aril.
Taxonomy
Acacia chamaeleon was first formally described in 1995 by Bruce Maslin in the journal Nuytsia from specimens he collected about north of Ongerup in 1971. The specific epithet means 'a lizard' that is changeable in its colour, referring to the phyllodes "which are very variable in shape and size".
This species of wattle is found in clay or loam in shrubland on undulating plains, flats and rises in the Avon Wheatbelt, Esperance Plains and Mallee bioregions of south-western Western Australia.
Acacia chamaeleon is listed as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.