Acacia nitidula

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

Description

The spreading shrub typically grows to a height of and has slightly angled, sparsely haired to glabrous branchlets with slender stipules with a length of about that taper to point and are easily shed. Like most species of Acacia it has phyllodes rather than true leaves. The glabrous, evergreen and ascending phyllodes have a narrowly oblanceolate shape and are straight to incurved with a length of and a width of with two main nerves per face. It produces yellow flowers.

Taxonomy

The species was first formally described by the botanist George Bentham in 1864 as a part of the work Flora Australiensis. It was reclassified by Leslie Pedley in 2003 as Racosperma nitidulum 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 commonly situated among granite boulders growing in gravelly, sandy granitic soils. The range of the plant extends from Jerramungup and Ravensthorpe in the west to Cape Arid National Park including Middle Island.