Acacia crassa explained

Acacia crassa, commonly known as the curracabah, is a species of Acacia native to eastern Australia.[1]

Description

The shrub to tree typically grows to a height of 12m (39feet) and has finely corrugated bark that fissures at the base.[1] The angled stout branchlets are light or dark grey or red-brown and often have distinct lenticels. The evergreen phyllodes have a narrowly elliptic shape that gradually tapers both ends. They are usually 12to in length and 3to wide and have three prominent main nerves. It flowers between July and October, the further south the later it flowers.[2] It produces a flower-spike with a length of 4to densely packed with golden flowers. After flowering glabrous linear seed pods that raised over and constricted between the seeds Pods are around 4.5to in length and 2.5to wide. The pods contain black seeds with an elliptic shape with a length of 3to.[2]

Distribution

Its range follows along the line of the Great Dividing Range from around Mackay in Queensland to about Newcastle in New South Wales[2] where it is found on sandstone and rocky conglomerate areas growing in gravelly, sandy, sandy loam or clayey soils. It is usually a part of sclerophyll woodland, heath or open scrub communities.[1]

Taxonomy

The species was first formally described by the botanist Leslie Pedley in 1974 in the work Contributions from the Queensland Herbarium. It was reclassified by Pedley in 1987 as Racosperma crassum, then transferred back to the genus Acacia in 2001.[3]

There are two known subspecies:

The shrub is a member of the Acacia cunninghamii group and is closely related to Acacia concurrens, Acacia leiocalyx, Acacia longispicata and Acacia tingoorensis.[2]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Acacia crassa Pedley. 14 September 2016. October 2013. Plantnet. Australian National Botanic Gardens.
  2. Web site: Acacia crassa. 2 October 2018. World Wide Wattle. Western Australian Herbarium.
  3. Web site: Acacia crassa Pedley. 2 October 2018. Atlas of Living Australia. Global Biodiversity Information Facility.