Acacia epacantha


Acacia epacantha is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a dense, spreading shrub with bipinnate leaves with a single pair of pinnae, spines in the leaf axils, spherical heads of golden yellow flowers, and curved to coiled pods.

Description

Acacia epacantha is a dense, spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of. Its leaves are bipinnate with a single pair of pinnae long on a petiole usually longer than. Each pinna has two pairs of leaflets long, wide, green and glabrous, with the edges rolled under. There are spines long in leaf axils. The flowers are borne in spherical heads near or above the middle of the axillary spines on a peduncle long, each head with 23 to 26 golden yellow flowers. Flowering occurs from July to August, and the pods are curved to coiled, long and wide and hairy. The seeds are oblong to circular, long.
This species of wattle is closely related to Acacia fagonioides, and both are unique members of the Acacia pulchella group in having inflorescences borne on axillary spines.

Taxonomy

This species was first formally described in 1975 by Bruce Maslin, who gave it the name Acacia lasiocarpa var. epacantha in the journal Nuytsia from specimens he collected south of Badgingarra towards Dandaragan in 1973. In 1979, Maslin raised the variety to species status as Acacia epacantha in a later edition of Nuytsia. The specific epithet refers to the fact that the flowers are borne on the axillary spine.

Distribution and habitat

This species of wattle grows in lateritic loam or clay in heath and open wandoo woodland and is restricted to the Eneabba-Dandaragan area in the Geraldton Sandplains and Swan Coastal Plain bioregions of south-western Western Australia.

Conservation status

Acacia epacantha is listed as "Priority Three" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, meaning that it is poorly known and known from only a few locations but is not under imminent threat.