Acacia durabilis
Acacia durabilis is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to the south of Western Australia. It is a spreading, open glabrous shrub with prominently striated branchlets, sharply pointed elliptic phyllodes, spherical heads of cream-coloured to pale yellow flowers, and narrowly oblong, crust like to almost woody pods.
Description
Acacia durabilis is a spreading, moderately open, glabrous, single-stemmed shrub that typically grows to a height of. It has terete, prominently striated branchlets covered with a white, powdery bloom. Its phyllodes are elliptic, mostly long, wide, leathery and sharply pointed with a prominent midvein. There are hard, pointed stipules long at the base of the phyllodes. The flowers are borne in a spherical head in axils on a peduncle long, the heads with 6 to 9 cream-coloured to pale yellow flowers. Flowering occurs from October to December or from January to April, and the pods are narrowly oblong and twisted, crust like to almost woody, up to long and wide. The seeds are elliptic, about long and glossy brown with a small aril.
Taxonomy
Acacia durabilis was first formally described in 1995 by the Bruce Maslin in the journal Nuytsia from specimens he collected near Mount Desmond, about south of Ravensthorpe, [Western Australia|Ravensthorpe] in 1971. The specific epithet means 'lasting' or 'enduring', referring to the "persistent stipules which are prominent on the plant, especially where phyllodes have shed.
Distributionand habitat
This species of wattle is most common in the Ravensthorpe Range between Mount Desmond and Kundip where it grows on ridges and hillsides, in rocky clay or sandy clay in open malle scrub or low woodland in the Esperance Plains bioregion of southern Western Australia.
Acacia durabilis is listed as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.