Acacia cretata
Acacia cretata is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to Queensland, Australia. It is a single-stemmed shrub or tree with flattened branchlets, narrowly elliptic to elliptic phyllodes, spikes of bright yellow flowers and linear, glabrous pods raised over and constricted between the seeds.
Description
Acacia cretata is a single-stemmed, round-topped shrub or tree that typically grows up to high and has smooth bark at first, later rough and fibrous. Its branchlets are flattened, glabrous, angular, brownish crimson with a whitish bloom. The phyllodes are narrowly elliptic to elliptic, long and wide, abruptly narrowed into short, stout petioles. The phyllodes are leathery, silvery bluish grey to glaucous with a hooked tip, the lower edge sometimes continuous with the branchlet. The flowers are borne in spikes long and bright yellow, the spikes on a peduncle long. Flowering occurs between July and September and the pods are linear, long and wide, thinly crusty and glabrous, raised over and more or less constricted between the seeds. The seeds are black, oblong, long and wide with a yellow aril.
Taxonomy
Acacia cretata was first formally described in 1969 by the botanist Leslie Pedley in Contributions from the Queensland Herbarium.
Distribution
This species of wattle occurs in Queensland along the Great Dividing Range between Mara and Moranbah and is common on the Blackdown Tableland, where it grows in open forest in sandy, gravelly or loamy soils, usually over sandstone.
Acacia cretata is listed as of "least concern" under the Queensland Government Nature Conservation Act 1992.