''Persoonia acicularis'' is a species of flowering plant in the family

Proteaceae The Proteaceae form a family (biology), family of flowering plants predominantly distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. The family comprises 83 genus, genera with about 1,660 known species. Australia and South Africa have the greatest concentr ...

and is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the west coast of Western Australia. It is a shrub with linear, sharply-pointed leaves and yellow flowers in groups of up to eighty.

Description

''Persoonia acicularis'' is a shrub that typically grows to a height of with young branchlets covered with greyish hairs. The leaves are linear, more or less cylindrical, long and wide and sharply pointed. Yellow, cylindrical flowers are borne in groups of up to eighty along up to of the stems, each flower long on a

pedicel Pedicle or pedicel may refer to: Human anatomy *Pedicle of vertebral arch, the segment between the transverse process and the vertebral body, and is often used as a radiographic marker and entry point in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures ...

long.

Taxonomy and naming

''Persoonia acicularis'' was first formally described in 1868 by

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Victoria, Australia ...

in his book ''

Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae ''Fragmenta phytographiae Australiae'' is a series of papers written by the Victorian Government botanist Ferdinand von Mueller in which he published many of his approximately 2000 descriptions of new taxa of Australian plants. Including the p ...

'' from specimens collected by Augustus Frederick Oldfield near the Murchison River. The

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

, , is derived from

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

and means "needle-shaped".

Distribution and habitat

This persoonia grows in heath in near-coastal areas of Western Australia between

Shark Bay Shark Bay () is a World Heritage Site in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The area is located approximately north of Perth, on the westernmost point of the Australian continent. UNESCO's listing of Shark Bay as a World Heritage S ...

and the Arrowsmith River in the

Geraldton Sandplains Geraldton Sandplains is an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia, interim Australian bioregion of Western Australia. It has an area of . The Geraldton Sandplains is part of the larger Southwest Australia savanna ecoregion, as asses ...

and Yalgoo bioigeographic regions.

Conservation status

''Persoonia acicularis'' is classified as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q18075043 acicularis Flora of Western Australia Plants described in 1868 Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller