Acacia besleyi
Acacia besleyi, also known as Bes' wattle, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to a small area near Ravensthorpe in the south-west of Western Australia. It is a rounded, often bushy shrub with linear, thinly leathery phyllodes, spherical heads of yellow flowers and narrowly oblong pods up to long.
Description
Acacia besleyi is a rounded, or inverted cone-shaped, often bushy shrub high, with linear, thinly leathery phyllodes long and wide with triangular stipules up to long at the base. There are three to five parallel veins, and a gland above the base of the phyllodes. One or two spherical heads of flowers are borne in axils on peduncles long, the heads are about in diameter with 15 to 22 yellow flowers. Flowering mostly occurs in October, and the pods are thinly leathery to crust-like, narrowly oblong, long and wide, containing oblong seeds long with a white, club-shaped aril.
Taxonomy
Acacia besleyi was first formally described in 2014 by Bruce Maslin in the journal Nuytsia from specimens he collected south of Ravensthorpe in 2013. The specific epithet honours Laurie Besley, a "distinguished scientist with CSIRO in Sydney and director of the National Measurement Institute in Sydney".
Bes' wattle is only known from a few populations in the Ravensthorpe Range, where it grows in undulating country in rocky places in mallee scrub.
Acacia besleyi is listed as "Priority One" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, meaning that it is known from only one or a few locations where it is potentially at risk.