- Source: Acacia heteroclita
Acacia heteroclita is a shrub or tree of the genus Acacia and the subgenus Plurinerves that is endemic to south western Australia.
Description
The erect spreading shrub or tree typically grows to a height of 1 to 4 metres (3 to 13 ft). Like most species of Acacia it has phyllodes rather than true leaves. The evergreen phyllodes have a linear to linear-oblanceolate shape and a length of 3 to 11 cm (1.2 to 4.3 in) and a width of 2 to 4 mm (0.079 to 0.157 in). It blooms from September to December and produces yellow flowers. The spherical flower-heads have a diameter of 4 to 5 mm (0.16 to 0.20 in) and contain 25 to 41 yellow-coloured flowers. Following flowering seed pods form that have a length of about 5.5 cm (2.2 in) and a width of 2.5 to 5 mm (0.098 to 0.197 in). The elliptic-oblong shaped seeds have a length of 2.5 to 3.5 mm (0.098 to 0.138 in) with a U-shaped pleurogram.
Taxonomy
There are two recognised subspecies:
Acacia heteroclita subsp. heteroclita
Acacia heteroclita subsp. valida
Distribution
It is native to an area in the southern Wheatbelt, Great Southern and Goldfields-Esperance regions of Western Australia where it is commonly situated among granite outcrops and slopes, lateritic breakaways and on undulating plains growing in sandy or gravelly granitic soils. It has a scattered and discontinuous from around Kulin in the north down to around the Fitzgerald River National Park in the south and as far east as Cape Le Grand National Park as well as some of the islands in the Recherche Archipelago. It is often a part of mallee, shrubland or heathland communities and can be found in saline areas.
See also
List of Acacia species