Acacia anasilla

Acacia anasilla is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to northern Western Australia. It is an erect shrub with whorls of 15 to 20 straight phyllodes and spherical heads of 40 to 50 flowers, and pods long.

Description

Acacia anasilla is an erect shrub that typically grows to a height of up to and has sticky, hairy stems. Its phyllodes are straight or gently curved and arranged around a flowering stem in whorls of 15 to 20 long, with a bristly hair on the end. There are erect, tapering stipules long at the base of the phyllodes. 40 to 50 densely packed yellow flowers are arranged in spherical heads on a peduncle long. The sepals are about long and the petals striated and long. Flowering occurs in July, and the fruit is a sessile pod long and wide containing between 3 and 10 seeds, each about long with a large aril.

Taxonomy

Acacia anasilla was first formally described in 1999 by the botanist Alexander Segger George in the Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia. The type specimen was collected from Mabel Downs Station near Winnimarra Spring in 1989 by K.A.Menkhorst. It is similar in appearance to Acacia lycopodiifolia and Acacia smeringa. The specific epithet means 'bristling hair', referring to the overall appearance of the plant.

Distribution

This species of Acacia is endemic to an area in the Kimberley region of Western Australia where it is found in arid barren quartzite ranges or on granite or sandstone slopes as a part of open Eucalyptus brevifolia woodland communities. Early collections were made around Halls Creek and the Ord River.