Acacia loxophylla


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

Description

The densely branched shrub typically grows to a height of and has glabrous or sparsely haired branchlets that are often resinous. Like most species of Acacia it has phyllodes rather than true leaves. The glabrous evergreen phyllodes have a widely elliptic to oblong-elliptic shape with a length of and a width of and have two to four nerves per face. The inflorescences occur singly or in pairs and have spherical flower-heads with a diameter of and contain 20 to 39 yellow colured flowers. The seed pods that form after flowering are covered in white hairs and curves to linear.

Taxonomy

The species was first formally described by the botanist George Bentham in 1855 as a part of the work Plantae Muellerianae: Mimoseae as published in the journal Linnaea: ein Journal für die Botanik in ihrem ganzen Umfange, oder Beiträge zur Pflanzenkunde. It was reclassified as Racosperma loxophyllum by Leslie Pedley in 2003 then transferred back to genus Acacia in 2006.

Distribution

It is native to an area in the Wheatbelt, Great Southern and Goldfields-Esperance regions of Western Australia where it is found growing in sandy to loamy soils. It has a scattered distribution from around Pingelly in the north west and near Ongerup in the south.