Acacia verticillata

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Acacia verticillata' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/acacia/acacia-verticillata/). Accessed 2024-12-04.

Genus

Acacia

Synonyms

Mimosa verticillata L'Heérit.

Other taxa in genus

Glossary

axil: Angle between the upper side of a leaf and the stem.
linear: Strap-shaped.
midrib: midveinCentral and principal vein in a leaf.
phyllode: A petiole taking on the form and functions of a leaf (as in e.g. Acacia).
spike: Inflorescence in which flowers sessile on the main axis.
whorl: Arrangement of three or more organs (leaves flowers) around a central axis. whorled Arranged in a whorl.

References

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Acacia verticillata' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/acacia/acacia-verticillata/). Accessed 2024-12-04.

Acacia verticillata is a common understorey shrub in both wet and dry sclerophyll forests in the wild. Nice Botanic garden (number 5516), France. 3 April 2009. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

An evergreen shrub up to 30 ft high of dense habit; young shoots distinctly and angularly ridged, downy. Phyllodes mostly arranged in whorls (verticillate), usually about six in a whorl; linear, awl-shaped, prickly pointed; 1⁄3 to 5⁄8 in. long, 1⁄20 to 1⁄12 in. wide; dark green, not downy, with a prominent midrib. Flowers clear bright yellow, closely packed in bottle-brush-like spikes 1⁄2 to 11⁄8 in. long and 1⁄4 to 1⁄3 in. wide, each spike springing from the axil of a phyllode on a downy stalk 1⁄8 to 1⁄2 in. long. Pods slender, 11⁄2 to 2 in. long, 1⁄6 in. wide, often curved or even sickle-shaped, sprinkled with pale hairs. Bot. Mag., t. 110.

Native of Australia (Victoria) and Tasmania; introduced by Sir Joseph Banks to Kew in 1780. There was once a very healthy plant at Lanarth in Cornwall, which reached a height of 20 ft and as much in spread, and bloomed in April and May. It is very beautiful every spring in the Australian House at Kew and is distinct among the acacias here described by the short prickly ‘leaves’ being arranged in whorls, but there are several other species in the genus that are similar in that respect.

Phyllodes are arranged in whorls (verticillate) around the young shoots on Acacia verticillata. Nice Botanic garden (number 5516), France. 3 April 2009. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

Acacia verticillata is a very variable species. Here the foliage with rather flat and oblong phyllodes, taken from a plant at the Botanische Garten der Universität Tübingen, Germany (11 July 2022). Image © Jan De Langhe - Arboretum Wespelaar.

Apically pungent phyllodes, with 1 longitudinal vein on Acacia verticillata (Botanische Garten der Universität Tübingen, Germany – 11 July 2022). Image © Jan De Langhe - Arboretum Wespelaar.

Acacia verticillata phyllodes distictly whorled on an angularly ridged and downy branchlet (Botanische Garten der Universität Tübingen, Germany – 11 July 2022). Image © Jan De Langhe - Arboretum Wespelaar.

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