Acacia lateriticola


Acacia lateriticola is a shrub of the genus Acacia and the subgenus Pulchellae that is endemic to an area of south western Australia.

Description

The ferny-leaved shrub typically grows to a height of and has hairy branchlets. The leaves are composed of two pairs of pinnae where the proximal pinnae are in length and the distal pinnae are in length. The proximal pinnae are composed of one to three pairs of pinnules while the distal pinnae have two to six pairs of pinnules. The flat and recurved green pinnules have an oblong to lanceolate shape with a length of and a width of. It blooms from May to October and produces yellow flowers. The simple inflorescences are found singly or in pairs in the axils and have spherical flower-heads with a diameter of and contain 24 to 36 light golden or rarely cream coloured flowers. The crustaceous seed pods that form after flowering have a narrowly oblong shape with a length of and a width of with thickened margins.

Taxonomy

The species was first formally described by the botanist Bruce Maslin in 1975 as a part of the work Studies in the genus Acacia - A Revision of Series Pulchellae as published in the journal Nuytsia. It was reclassified as Racosperma lateriticola by Leslie Pedley in 2003 then transferred back to genus Acacia in 2006.

Distribution

It is native to an area in the Peel and South West regions of Western Australia where it is usually found growing in lateritic soils. The bulk of the population is found from around Chittering in the north to Manjimup in the east and Dunsborough in the south where it is often a part of Eucalyptus marginata and Corymbia calophylla woodland and forest communities.