''Acacia acanthaster'' is a species of flowering plant in the family

Fabaceae The Fabaceae or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomenc ...

and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a rigid, densely-branched, domed shrub with flat, linear

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, spherical heads of golden-yellow flowers, and curved pods that resemble a string of beads.

Description

''Acacia acanthaster'' is a rigid, densely-branched, domed shrub that typically grows to high and wide. Its branchlets are glabrous, and divided near the ends into a few short, radiating, leafless spines. The phyllodes are glabrous, flat and linear, long and wide. Between 18 and 27 golden-yellow flowers are arranged in 1 or 2 spherical heads long on a

peduncle Peduncle may refer to: *Peduncle (botany), a stalk supporting an inflorescence, which is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed *Peduncle (anatomy), a stem, through which a mass of tissue is attached to a body **Peduncle (art ...

long. Flowering occurs from August to October and the pods are curved or loosely coiled, long, wide and resemble a string of beads. The seeds are elliptic, about long and have a white, club-shaped

aril An aril (pronounced ), also called an arillus, is a specialized outgrowth from a seed that partly or completely covers the seed. An arillode or false aril is sometimes distinguished: whereas an aril grows from the attachment point of the see ...

Taxonomy

''Acacia acanthaster'' was first formally described by the

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

Bruce Maslin in 1999 in the journal '' Nuytsia'' from specimens collected about north-east of

Norseman The Norsemen (or Norse people) were a North Germanic ethnolinguistic group of the Early Middle Ages, during which they spoke the Old Norse language. The language belongs to the North Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages and is the pre ...

from specimens collected by

Kenneth Newbey Kenneth Raymond Newbey (11 June 1936 – 24 July 1988) was a plant ecologist, botanical collector and horticulturist. Born in Katanning, Western Australia, he collected over 12000 specimens from the Albany- Esperance, Wheatbelt, goldfields and Pi ...

in 1980. In 2006, Leslie Pedley transferred the species to ''Racosperma'' as ''R. acanthaster'', but that name is considered a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

of ''A. acanthaster'' by the Australian Plant Census. The

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 ...

(''acanthaster'') means "a prickly star", referring to the spines on the ends of the branchlets.

Distribution and habitat

This shrub grows in sandy soil, clay or loam on granite outcrop, hills and plains in disjunct places between Dumbleyung,

Lake King Lake King is a town in the eastern Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, from Perth along State Route 40 between Kelmscott and Ravensthorpe. As of 2016, the town had a population of 95. The 2011 census recorded both the population of the tow ...

and Narembeen, and near the

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * Ty ...

location, near Sinclair Soak, in the Avon Wheatbelt, Coolgardie and Mallee bioregions in the south-west of Western Australia.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q14859186

acanthaster ''Acanthaster'' is a bitypic genus of large and venomous starfish placed in its own family, Acanthasteridae. Its two members are known as crown-of-thorns starfish. Acanthaster are native to coral reefs in Indo-Pacific region. The species in ...

Acacias of Western Australia Plants described in 1999 Taxa named by Bruce Maslin

Description

Taxonomy

Distribution and habitat

See also

References