Acacia lirellata is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a bushy, low-lying to erect shrub, with erect, terete or flat and narrowly linear phyllodes, spherical to oblong, sessile heads of golden yellow flowers, and straight or loosely coiled, crusty or thinly leathery pods appearing like a string of beads.
Description Acacia lirellata is a bushy, low-lying to erect shrub that typically grows up to high and wide and has ribbed, straight or zig-zagged branchlets. Its phyllodes are erect, terete or flat and narrowly linear, curved or ring-shaped, long and wide, thick and glabrous with three veins on each face when flattened. The flowers are golden yellow and borne in two sessile, more or less spherical to oblong heads long and wide in axils. Flowering occurs from June to August, and the pods appear like a string of beads, straight or loosely coiled and flat, up to long, wide and crusty to thinly leathery. The seeds are oblong to elliptic, long, glossy dark brown with a yellowish aril on the end.
Taxonomy Acacia lirellata was first formally described in 1999 by Bruce Maslin and Alex Chapman in the journal Nuytsia from specimens Maslin collected east of Quairading in 1976.
In the same journal, Maslin and Chapman described two subspecies of A lirellata, and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census: Acacia lirellata Maslin & A.R.Chapman subsp. compressa has flat phyllodes wide with a short pulvinus. Acacia lirellata Maslin & A.R.Chapman subsp. lirellata has sessile phyllodes that are terete to four sided in cross section, the phyllode bases extending down the stem and wide.
Distribution and habitat This species of wattle occurs in scattered places between Coorow, Ballidu, Bruce Rock and Waterbidden Rock (about east of Bruce Rock) in the Avon Wheatbelt and Geraldton Sandplains bioregions of south-western Western Australia.
Subspecies compressa occurs between about Ballidu and about south-east from Bruce Rock to Waterbidden Rock and subsp. liratella has a discontinuous distribution from the Coorow-Watheroo area and about south-east to the Northham-Quairading area.
Conservation status Subspecies compressa is listed as 'Priority Two' and subsp. liratella as 'Priority Three' under the Biodiversity Conservation Act.
See also List of Acacia species
References