Acacia catenulata, commonly known as bendee, is a tree belonging to the genus Acacia and the subgenus Juliflorae that is endemic to some arid areas in Australia.
The tree typically grows to a height of 15 metres (49 ft) with a dark deeply fluted trunk[1] with numerous short horizontal branches and angular branchlets with darker young growth and that have a scattering of short hairs. Like most species of Acacia it has phyllodes rather than true leaves. The evergreen, flat, straight phyllodes are glabrescent with a length of 3 to 9.5 cm (1.2 to 3.7 in) and a width of 3 to 12 mm (0.12 to 0.47 in) and are finely striated longitudinally with a more prominent midnerve.[2] When it blooms it produces simple inflorescences that occur singly or in pairs in the axils with cylindrical flower-spikes that are 10 to 30 mm (0.39 to 1.18 in) in length. After flowering pale brown flat seed pods form that are contracted between each of the seeds. The pods are quite straight with a length of up to 8 cm (3.1 in) and a width of 4 to 6 mm (0.16 to 0.24 in) that are glabrous and longitudinally wrinkled. The longitudinally arranged oblong seeds are 4 to 5 mm (0.16 to 0.20 in) in length and 2 to 2.5 mm (0.079 to 0.098 in) wide with a small yellow aril.[2]
It was first formally described by the botanist Cyril Tenison White in 1944 as part of the work Contributions to the Queensland Flora as published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland. It was reclassified as Racosperma catenulatum by Leslie Pedley in 1987 and transferred back to genus Acacia in 2001.[3]
There are two recognized subspecies
It is native to an area of the Pilbara region of Western Australia centred around Newman where it is commonly found on scarps composed of weathered sediments growing in shallow soils.[1] It only has a limited distribution in the Northern Territory but is quite common in central and southern Queensland.[2]
