''Acacia enterocarpa'', commonly known as jumping jack wattle, is a shrub species that is
endemic to eastern
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
.
Description
The shrub has a dense spreading habit and typically grows to a height of less than . It has ribbed, red to brown coloured branchlets that are asperulate. The pungent, rigid,
glabrous, green
phyllode
Phyllodes are modified petioles or leaf stems, which are leaf-like in appearance and function. In some plants, these become flattened and widened, while the leaf itself becomes reduced or vanishes altogether. Thus the phyllode comes to serve the ...
s are subsessile and patent to inclined. The phyllodes are straight to shallowly recurved and have a length of and a width of and have 10 to 12 distant raised nerves.
[ It blooms between May and October][ and produces simple inflorescences simple in groups of one to four situated in the axils. The spherical flower-heads have a diameter of and contain over 20 bright yellow flowers. The brown undulate seed pods that form after flowering have yellow margins. The coriaceous seed pods have a length of around and a width of . The dull dark brown to black coloured seeds in the pods have an oblong to elliptic shape and are around in length.]
Taxonomy
The species was first formally described by the botanist R.V.Smith in 1957 as part of the work ''A remarkable new Acacia for Victoria (The "Jumping-Jack" Wattle)'' as published in ''The Victorian Naturalist''. It was reclassified as ''Racosperma enterocarpum'' in 2003 by Leslie Pedley then transferred back to genus ''Acacia'' in 2005.specific epithet
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...
is derived from the Greek words ''entero'' meaning ''intestines'' and ''karpos'' meaning fruit in reference to the shape of the seed pod.[ Both '']Acacia colletioides
''Acacia colletioides'', commonly known as wait-a-while, pin bush and spine bush, is a shrub of the genus ''Acacia'' and the subgenus ''Plurinerves'' that is native to Australia.
Description
The rigid spreading prickly shrub typically grows to a ...
'' and '' Acacia nyssophylla'' are closely related to ''A. enterocarpa''.[
]
Distribution
It has a disjunct distribution through parts of south eastern South Australia and western Victoria. It is found on the southern tip of the Eyre Peninsula and Yorke Peninsula from around Curramulka
Curramulka is a town in the Australian state of South Australia on the Yorke Peninsula. Curramulka is within easy driving distance of the coastal resort towns of Port Victoria and Port Vincent and is north-east of Minlaton. At the , Curramu ...
and near Bordertown extending eastwards as far as to Nhill
Nhill is a town in the Wimmera, in western Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. Nhill is located on the Western Highway, Victoria, Western Highway, halfway between Adelaide and Melbourne. At the , Nhill had a
population of 1,749. "Nhill" i ...
in western Victoria.[ It is often found as part of woodland to open forest communities and grows in sandy alkaline soils as well as neutral yellow duplex to red porous loamy soils and grey cracking clay soils.]
See also
* List of ''Acacia'' species
*Aberdour Conservation Park __NOTOC__
Aberdour Conservation Park is a protected area in the Australian state of South Australia located in the state's south-east in the locality of Willalooka about south-east of the state capital of Adelaide and about south of the tow ...
*Ramsay Conservation Park
Ramsay Conservation Park is a protected area in the Australian state of South Australia located in the Yorke Peninsula in the locality of Ramsay about west-northwest of the town of Port Vincent.
The conservation park consists of crown land ...
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q4670926
enterocarpa
Flora of South Australia
Flora of Victoria (state)
Fabales of Australia
Plants described in 1957