Acacia oxyclada


Acacia oxyclada is a shrub belonging to the genus Acacia and the subgenus Phyllodineae that is endemic to western Australia.

Description

The spreading to erect spinescent shrub typically grows to a height of. It has short, straight, slender, ascending to inclined glabrous branchlets that taper to a rigid and sharp point. Like most species of Acacia it has phyllodes rather than true leaves. The evergreen and erect phyllodes have a linear to narrowly oblong shape and are horizontally flattened. The glabrous to sub-glabrous green phyllodes have a length of and a width of with obscure nerves. It blooms from August to October and produces yellow flowers. The inflorescences occur on single headed racemes along an axis with a length of around. The obloid shaped flower-heads contain 20 to 25 golden coloured flowers. Following flowering seed pods form. The glabrous and chartaceous pods are straight to curved with a length of up to and a width of The shiny and obscurely mottled seeds inside have an ovate shape with a length of with an aril that is as long as the seed.

Taxonomy

The species was first formally described by the botanist George Bentham in 1864 as part of the work Flora Australiensis. It was reclassified by Leslie Pedley in 2003 as Racosperma oxycladum then transferred back to genus Acacia in 2006. It is often confused with Acacia ulicina.

Distribution

It is native to an area in the Mid West and Wheatbelt regions of Western Australia where it is found on sandplains and rocky hills growing in sandy and loamy lateritic soils. It has a disjunct distribution with the bulk of the population situated from around Northampton in the north down to around Kalbarri in the south. with collections from near Moora and Lake Varley as a part of low shrubland communities composed of species of Acacia and Melaleuca.