Acacia abbreviata

The resinous shrub has a spreading habit and typically grows to a height of 0.3 to 0.6 m (1 ft 0 in to 2 ft 0 in) with a width of 1 to 3.6 m (3 ft 3 in to 11 ft 10 in). The generally smooth pale grey-brown coloured bark is minutely fissured. The angular yellow to red-brown branchlets have small resinous hairs and obscure ridges. The linear green phyllodes occur in groups of six at the nodes. They have a narrowly oblong or narrowly oblanceolate shape and a length of 0.4 to 2.5 cm (0.16 to 0.98 in) and a width of 0.6 to 1.2 mm (0.024 to 0.047 in) with indistinct nerves. It blooms between April and October producing cylindrical flower-spikes with a length of 0.7 to 2 cm (0.28 to 0.79 in) packed with golden coloured flowers. The flat and sub-woody seed pods that form after flowering have a linear-oblanceolate shape that tapers toward the base. The pods are 2.5 to 6.5 cm (0.98 to 2.56 in) in length and 3 to 5 mm (0.12 to 0.20 in) wide, have prominent margins and open elastically from the apex. The seeds inside are arranged obliquely to longitudinally. The brown seeds have a narrowly oblong shape and a length of 3 to 4.5 mm (0.12 to 0.18 in) and have a narrowly turbinate aril.[3]

The species was first formally described by the botanist Bruce Maslin in 1980 as part of the work Acacia (Leguminosae-Mimosoideae): A contribution to the flora of central Australia as published in the Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens. It was reclassified as Racosperma abbreviatum by Leslie Pedley in 2003 then transferred back to genus Acacia in 2006.[4] The type specimen was collected in the Tanami desert by J.R.Maconochie in 1970.[3]

The shrub is found in a small area of the Tanami Desert in the Northern Territory close to the Western Australian border. It is usually situated on stony lateritic ridges and plains where it grows in shallow clay loamy soils as a part of spinifex communities.[3]

List of Acacia species