Acacia anarthros is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a shrub with bipinnate leaves with 1 leaflet, each with 2 or 3 pairs of pinnules, spherical heads of 14 to 17 flowers, and narrowly oblong pods up to about long.
Acacia anarthros is an erect or prostrate, spiny shrub that typically grows to a height of and has flexuous branchlets. Its leaves are bipinnate and sessile, with 1 pair of pinnae long, each with 2 to 3 pinnules long and wide with their edges rolled under. There are spiny stipules long at the base of the pinnae. The flowers are arranged in a single sperical head in axils on a peduncle long, each head with 14 to 16 golden-yellow flowers. Flowering occurs from June to September and the fruit is a narrowly oblong, crust-like and hairy pod about long and wide. The seeds are broadly elliptic to more or less round, long with a rough surface.[1] [2] [3]
Acacia anarthros was first formally described in 1979 by the botanist Bruce Maslin in the journal Nuytsia, distinguishing in from the similar A. drewiana.[4] The specific epithet (anarthros) means 'not differentiated', referring to the downward extending of the leaf axils.
This wattle has a limited range around New Norcia as a part of heathland or open Eucalyptus wandoo or Corymbia calophylla woodland communities, and sometimes in heath.[2]
Acacia anartoros is listed as "Priority three" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions meaning that it is poorly known and known from only a few locations but is not under imminent threat.[5]