Acacia ixodes


Acacia ixodes, commonly known as motherumbung, is a shrub belonging to the genus Acacia and the subgenus Phyllodineae that is native to parts of eastern Australia.

Description

The shrub typically grows to a height of and has an erect and spreading habit. It has glabrous and resinous branchlets that are angled or flattened towards the apices. Like most species of Acacia it has phyllodes rather than true leaves. The narrowly elliptic to linear or linear-oblanceolate shaped glabrous to resinous phyllodes are straight to slightly curved with a length of and a width of and has a prominent midvein with faint lateral veins. It produces yellow flowers between August and November. The simple inflorescences occur singly in the axils and have spherical to ovoid shaped flower-heads with a diameter of containing 20 to 30 bright yellow flowers.

Taxonomy

The species was first formally described by the botanist Leslie Pedley in 1980 as part of the work A revision of Acacia Mill. in Queensland as published in the journal Austrobaileya. It was reclassified as Racosperma ixodes by Pedley in 1987 then transferred back to genus Acacia in 2001. The only other synonym is Acacia gnidium var. latifolia. The specific epithet is a reference to the sticky nature of new shoots and immature phyllodes.

Distribution

The shrub has a wide distribution through central New South Wales extending into Queensland. In New South Wales the bulk of the population is situated between Dubbo to around Gilgandra and Mendooran