Acacia muriculata


Acacia muriculata, commonly known as Koolanooka wattle, is a shrub belonging to the genus Acacia and the subgenus Phyllodineae that is endemic to a small area of south western Australia.

Description

The multi-branched obconic shrub typically grows to a height of. It is intricately branched with moderately sized ribs with caducous hairs and long stipules with thickened bases and maroon red or dull brown coloured new shoots. Like most species of Acacia it has phyllodes rather than true leaves. The grey-green to blue-green coriaceous phyllodes are wide spreading, usually with a narrowly oblong to oblong-elliptic shape and a coarsely pungent tip The shallowly recurved phyllodes are in length and wide and have a prominent yellowish midrib. It blooms between September and October and possibly as late as November producing simple inflorescences is found singly or in pairs on a long raceme with densely packed spherical flower-heads that contain 26 to 50 light golden coloured flowers.

Taxonomy

The species was first formally described by the botanists Bruce Maslin and Carrie Buscumb in 2007 as a part of the work Two new species of Acacia from the Koolanooka Hills in the northern wheatbelt region of south-west Western Australia as published in the journal Nuytsia. It is thought to be closely related to Acacia aculeiformis and Acacia botrydion.

Distribution

It is native to a small area near Morawa in the Mid West region of Western Australia where it is commonly situated on hill crests and slopes growing in soils over and around laterite and ironstone. It is usually found growing in loamy soils as a part of mallee shrubland communities.