Acacia sclerophylla

Acacia sclerophylla, commonly known as the hard-leaf wattle, is a shrub of the genus Acacia and the subgenus Plurinerves and is endemic to southern parts of Australia.

Description

The shrub typically grows to a height of and a width of and has a moderately open habit. It has glossy green phyllodes with an oblanceolate shape and are slightly sticky. The ascending to erect phyllodes are straight to shallowly incurved with a length of and a width of. It blooms from August to October and produces yellow flowers. The golden-yellow spherical flowers are prolifically produced in the leaf axils. Each simple inflorescence has a diameter of and contains 12 to 20 flowers. After flowering linear to curved to openly coiled seed pods form with a length of and a width of that contain longitudinal seeds with an oblong to oblong-ovate shape.

Taxonomy

The species was first formally described by the botanist John Lindley in 1838 as part of Thomas Mitchell's work Three Expeditions into the interior of Eastern Australia. It was briefly reclassified as Racosperma sclerophyllum by Leslie Pedley in 2003 then transferred back to the genus Acacia in 2006.
There are three known varieties:Acacia sclerophylla var. pilosaAcacia sclerophylla var. sclerophyllaAcacia sclerophylla var. ''teretiuscula''

Distribution

It is native to southern areas in South Australia and Victoria as well as an area in the Wheatbelt and Goldfields-Esperance regions of Western Australia. It is also found in south eastern parts of South Australia, eastern parts of Victoria and south eastern parts of New South Wales.

Cultivation

The hardy and attractive species are often used for hydroseeding on roadside that can grow in a variety of soils. It requires little maintenance, is drought tolerant and frost hardy down to.