Acacia kenneallyi


Acacia kenneallyi is a shrub or tree of the genus Acacia and the subgenus Plurinerves that is endemic to north western Australia.

Description

The spindly shrub or tree typically grows to a height of and has terete and glabrous branchlets that are often covered in a fine white powdery coating. Like most species of Acacia it has phyllodes rather than true leaves. The glabrous, leathery and evergreen phyllodes have a narrowly elongate-elliptic to linear shape and are straight to slightly curved with a length of and a width of and have one prominent central nerve, with a second weaker longitudinal nerve occasionally present. It blooms from May to June and produces yellow flowers. The axillary or terminal inflorescences have spherical flower-heads with a diameter of about and contain 46 to 56 densely packed golden coloured flowers. The leathery to sub-woody seed pods that form after flowering have a linear shape and are flat and straight with a length of up to around and a width of.

Taxonomy

The species is closely related to Acacia spectra and Acacia latescens as well as Acacia orthotropica to which it is superficially dissimilar.

Distribution

It is native to an area in the Kimberely, region of Western Australia where it is commonly situated in areas of sandstone or dolerite growing in skeletal sandy soils. It is mostly found on the Bonaparte Archipelago and parts of the nearby mainland and also off-shore including on Heywood Island and Bigge Island as a part of Eucalyptus woodland communities.