Acacia shuttleworthii

Acacia shuttleworthii is a shrub of the genus Acacia and the subgenus Phyllodineae that is endemic to western Australia.

Description
The low compact shrub typically grows to a height of 0.25 to 0.5 m. It has finely ribbed, green coloured branchlets that are quite hairy with persistent stipules that have a linear-triangular shape and are 1 to 3 mm in length. Like most species of Acacia it has phyllodes rather than true leaves. The oblique, ovate to elliptic or circular shaped phyllodes have a length of 5 to 16 mm and a width of 3 to 11 mm and are also covered in hairs and sometimes have two or three imperfect nerves on each face. It blooms from October to December and produces cream-white flowers.

Taxonomy
The species was first formally described by the botanist Carl Meissner in 1844 as a part of Johann Georg Christian Lehmanns work Plantae Preissianae. It was reclassified as Racosperma shuttleworthii in 2003 by Leslie Pedley then transferred back to genus Acacia in 2006.

Distribution
It is native to an area in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia where it is found on hills and breakaways growing in lateritic soils. It has a disjunct distribution from around Dandaragan in the north to around Gnowangerup in the south growing in gravelly clay and sandy soils as a part of Eucalyptus wandoo woodland communities.