Acacia dielsii

Acacia dielsii is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a shrub with inclined to erect, terete phyllodes, spherical heads of golden yellow flowers and pods readily breaking into one-seeded, spindle-shaped sections.

Description

Acacia dielsii is shrub that typically grows to a height of and has terete or weakly-angled, glabrous branchlets. Its phyllodes are inclined to erect, straight to curved and terete, long and wide, glaucous when young, ageing to pale green and glabrous. There are 14 to 18 slightly raised veins on the phyllodes. The flowers are arranged in two spherical heads in axils on peduncles long with persistent hooded bracts. The heads are in diameter with 8 to 17 golden yellow flowers. Flowering occurs from February to September and the pods are up to long and wide and thin, readily breaking into one-seeded, spindle-shaped sections. The seeds are narrowly oblong, long tan, mottled and slightly glossy and lack an aril.

Taxonomy

Acacia dielsii was first formally described in 1904 by the botanist Ernst Georg Pritzel in Botanische Jahrbücher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie from specimens he collected south of Tammin in 1901.
Acacia dielsii is closely related to A. nivea and A. obesa which together make up the "A. dielsii group" of wattles.
The specific epithet honours the German botanist Ludwig Diels.

Distribution and habitat

This species of wattle occurs in a belt from the Murchison River, east of Kalbarri, to the Newdegate area, where it grows in sandy, loamy and lateritic soils in open scrub and shrubland, in the Avon Wheatbelt, Coolgardie, Geraldton Sandplains, Mallee and Yalgoo bioregions of south-western Western Australia.

Conservation status

Acacia dielsii is listed as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.