Acacia pachypoda
Acacia pachypoda is a species of shrub in the family Fabaceae. It is endemic to south western Australia.
Description
The spreading and prickly shrub typically grows to a height of that has glabrous branches with light grey coloured bark. The coarsely pungent branchlets are rigid, terete and have no ribbing. Like most species of Acacia it has phyllodes rather than true leaves. The pungent, rigid and green phyllodes are mostly patent with a length if and a diameter of about. It blooms from August to September and produces cream-yellow flowers. The inflorescences occur in pairs of groups of three on a raceme with a length of around. The spherical flower-heads contain around eight loosely packed cream coloured flowers. The seed pods that form after flowering have a linear shape with a length that is up to and a width of. The dark brown coloured and crustaceous pods have longitudinally arranged seeds inside. The dark brown seeds have an oblong shape with a length of with a terminal white aril.Taxonomy
The species was first formally described by the botanist Bruce Maslin in 1974 as a part of the work Studies in the genus Acacia - Miscellaneous new phyllodinous species as published in the journal Nuytsia. It was reclassified as Racosperma pachypodum in 2003 by Leslie Pedley then transferred back to genus Acacia in 2006.A. pachypoda is closely related to Acacia castanostegia and similar in appearance to Acacia atrox.
The specific epithet is taken from the Ancient Greek "thick" and "foot".