Acacia kempeana ( Acacia or ακακία (akakia) from the Greek word Akis for thorn and kempeana after Pastor Kempe, co-founder of Lutheran Mission at Hermannburg-Ntaria in 1877), commonly known as wanderrie wattle, witchetty bush
Description
Witchetty bush grows as a spreading shrub or tree with many stems typically to a height of but can reach over .
[ It has furrowed, usually grey or brown coloured bark and terete, glabrous terete branchlets that are slightly scurfy.][ Like most Acacia species, it has rather than true leaves. These are a bright green to grey-green or blue-green colour, flat, up to around in length and wide. The phyllodes have a narrowly elliptic to narrowly elliptic, sometimes narrowly oblanceolate shape.][ The flowers between January or April and September][ are yellow, and held in cylindrical clusters in length. The pods are papery, about long and wide.
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Taxonomy
The species was first formally described by the botanist Ferdinand von Mueller in 1882 as part of the work Remarks on Australian Acacias as published in the Australasian Chemist and Druggist. It was reclassified as Racosperma kempeanum in 1987 by Leslie Pedley then transferred back to the genus Acacia in 2006.[
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Uses
are a traditional staple food in arid regions. These larvae feed on the roots of the witchetty bush (for which they are named), as well as other Acacia species.
Distribution
The shrub is widely distributed through arid and semi-arid inland areas of Western Australia,[ South Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland. It is often found growing on stony hillsides][ and in a variety of soil types,][
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Cultivation
The shrub can be propagated from scarified seeds or seeds pre-treated in boiling water. It grows well in an open, sunny and reasonably well-drained position and is suitable for most soil types. It is a hardy species in dry and low maintenance areas, well noted for being both drought and frost tolerant.
See also
