''Acacia stellaticeps'', commonly known as the Northern star wattle, poverty bush and glistening wattle.

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

the

Nyangumarta people The Nyangumarta people, also written Njaŋumada, Njangamada, Njanjamarta and other variations, are a nation of Aboriginal Australians from the northwestern coast of Western Australia. According to Norman Tindale, they are divided into two distinc ...

s know the bush as pirrnyur or pirrinyurru and the

Ngarla The Ngarla are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Country Norman Tindale estimated their territory, to the west of Port Hedland, at around , describing it as lying along the coast to the west of Solitar ...

peoples know it as panmangu. It is a shrub of the genus ''

Acacia ''Acacia'', commonly known as the wattles or acacias, is a large genus of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa and Australasia. The genus na ...

'' and the subgenus ''Plurinerves''.

Description

The low dense shrub typically grows to a height of and to a width of around . It has numerous slender main stems separating from each other at ground level that are covered in smooth or finely fissured, grey coloured bark. Like most species of ''Acacia'' it has

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 rather than true leaves. The dull-green to greyish green phyllodes have an asymmetrically elliptic-obovate shape and are usually slightly sigmoid. They have a length of and a width of and appear nerveless with one to three longitudinal nerves that are slightly more distinct than the others. It blooms from October to May and produces yellow flowers.

Taxonomy

The species was first formally described by the botanists Peter Kodela,

Mary Tindale Mary Douglas Tindale (19 September 1920 – 31 March 2011) was an Australian botanist specialising in pteridology (ferns) and the genera ''Acacia'' and ''Glycine''. Tindale was born in Randwick, New South Wales, the only child of George Harold Ti ...

and D.Keith in 2001 as part of the work ''Acacia stellaticeps (Fabaceae: Mimosoideae), a new species from the Pilbara, Western Australia, to Tanami, Northern Territory.'' as published by the world ''

Nuytsia ''Nuytsia floribunda'' is a hemiparasitic tree found in Western Australia. The species is known locally as moodjar and, more recently, the Christmas tree or Western Australian Christmas tree. The display of intensely bright flowers during the ...

''. It was reclassified as ''Racosperma stellaticeps'' in 2003 by

Leslie Pedley Leslie Pedley (19 May 1930 – 27 November 2018)IPNILeslie Pedley/ref> was an Australian botanist who specialised in the genus ''Acacia''. He is notable for bringing into use the generic name ''Racosperma'', creating a split in the genus, which r ...

then transferred back to genus ''Acacia'' in 2006.

Distribution

It is native to an area in the

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia * Kimberley (Western Australia) ** Roman Catholic Diocese of Kimberley * Kimberley Warm Springs, Tasmania * Kimberley, Tasmania a small town * County of Kimberley, a ...

Pilbara The Pilbara () is a large, dry, thinly populated region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its Aboriginal peoples; its ancient landscapes; the red earth; and its vast mineral deposits, in particular iron ore. It is also a glo ...

and northern

Goldfields Goldfield or Goldfields may refer to: Places * Goldfield, Arizona, the former name of Youngberg, Arizona, a populated place in the United States * Goldfield, Colorado, a community in the United States * Goldfield, Iowa, a city in the United State ...

regions of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. It is commonly found on flats, plains and sand ridges where it grows in stony sandy or clay soils. It is mostly found from around the

Exmouth Gulf Exmouth Gulf is a gulf in the north-west of Western Australia. It lies between North West Cape and the main coastline of Western Australia. It is considered to be part of the Pilbara Coast and Northwest Shelf, and the Carnarvon Basin geologi ...

in the south to around Broome in the north extending eastward into the

Great Sandy Desert The Great Sandy Desert is an interim Australian bioregion,IBRA Version 6.1
data

and the

Tanami Desert The Tanami Desert is a desert in northern Australia, situated in the Northern Territory and Western Australia. It has a rocky terrain with small hills, and cacti. The Tanami was the Northern Territory's final frontier and was not fully explored b ...

in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

. The shrub is usually found in soft spinifex communities especially those with ''

Triodia pungens ''Triodia pungens'', commonly known as soft spinifex, is a species of grass native to northwestern Australia. The plant is currently being researched due to its resinous properties as a Termite timber coating. Other research and applications are ...

'' and ''

Triodia epactia Triodia may refer to: * Triodia (moth), ''Triodia'' (moth), a genus of moths of the family Hepialidae * Triodia (plant), ''Triodia'' (plant), a genus of grasses in the family Poaceae {{Genus disambiguation ...

'' and in red sandy soils where ''A. stellaticeps'' can large, dense, pure stands.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15289126 stellaticeps Acacias of Western Australia Plants described in 2001 Taxa named by Mary Tindale Flora of the Northern Territory

Description

Taxonomy

Distribution

See also

References