Acacia ixiophylla Benth.
WATTLE
Acacias of Australia
Family
Fabaceae
Distribution
Predominantly along the western slopes and plains of the Great Divide from Mt Wilson, N.S.W., N to Miles, Qld, but with sporadic occurrences as far N as Alpha and near Jericho, Qld.
Description
Spreading shrub 1–4 m high. Branchlets minutely pilose with mixed stellate and simple hairs, often viscid. Phyllodes patent, narrowly oblong to elliptic, (1–) 2–4 (–4.5) cm long, 2–10 mm wide, acute to obtuse, coriaceous, with sparse to moderately dense simple or stellate hairs, occasionally glabrous, viscid, with 3–7 distant ±raised (2 or 3 strongly raised) main nerves and loosely anastomosing minor nerves; gland basal. Inflorescences 2- or 3-headed racemes; raceme axes 1–8 mm long; peduncles 2–5 mm long, densely minutely pilose to tomentulose with white hairs; heads globular, 5–9 mm diam., 20–45-flowered, light golden. Flowers 5‑merous; sepals free. Pods linear, ±constricted between seeds, ±curved or slightly coiled, to 7 cm long, 2–5 mm wide, thin-crustaceous, puberulous basally and marginally. Seeds longitudinal, oblong to narrowly oblong-elliptic, 4–5 mm long, glossy, brown-black; aril apical.
Habitat
Favours sandy and gravelly soil, with Callitris, Casuarina or Eucalyptus.
Specimens
Qld: 68.7 km E of Inglewood on Cunningham Hwy, I.B.Armitage 1372 (NSW, PERTH); Miles, R.Coveny 455 (NSW, PERTH); 11.2 km SW of Alpha Stn, L.Adams 1341 (CANB n.v., NSW, PERTH). N.S.W.: Genowlan Mtn, 11.2 km NE of Capertee, E.F.Constable 5035 (NSW, PERTH).
Notes
In the past there has been much confusion surrounding A. ixiophylla, a species which is now shown to be confined to eastern Australia. J.H.Maiden, J. & Proc. Roy. Soc. New South Wales 49: 502–512 (1916), discussed the confusion between A. ixiophylla and A. montana. L.Pedley, Austrobaileya 1: 203 (1978), agreed with Maiden’s conclusion that Baker misapplied the name A. ixiophylla to A. montana and that Baker’s A. fuliginea is conspecific with A. ixiophylla. As shown by R.S.Cowan & B.R.Maslin, Nuytsia 189 & 197 (1990), the Drummond 5: 13 specimen (which was referred to by Maiden) is A. consobrina while A. glutinosa is an ambiguous name possibly referable to A. verricula. The ‘A. ixiophylla’ referred to by B.R.Maslin, Nuytsia 1: 329 (1974), in the discussion under A. redolens was subsequently described as A. verricula.
A member of the ‘A. flavipila group’ and related to A. verricula which differs most obviously by the absence of stellate hairs on its branchlets and phyllodes, its type of phyllode venation and its gland being clearly removed from the pulvinus. Seemingly close to A. lanei and A. spongolitica, and superficially similar to A. consobrina and A. montana.
FOA Reference
Data derived from Flora of Australia Volumes 11A (2001), 11B (2001) and 12 (1998), products of ABRS, ©Commonwealth of Australia
Author
Minor edits by B.R.Maslin & J.Reid
R.S.Cowan, B.R.Maslin
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