Acacia acanthaster is a shrub belonging to the genus Acacia and the subgenus Phyllodineae. It is native to an area in the Great Southern and Goldfields-Esperance regions of Western Australia. Description The prostrate, sprawling and spiny shrub typically grows to a height of and a width of . The phyllodes are flat and linear with a length of and wide and narrow toward the base. It blooms from August to October and produces yellow flowers. The simple inflorescences have globular heads globular with a diameter of composed of 18 to 27 flowers. It later forms seed pods that are strongly arcuate to loosely coiled in shape. The pods are approximately long and wide containing longitudinal, elliptic seeds. Taxonomy The species was first formally described by the botanist Bruce Maslin in 1999 in the article Acacia miscellany 16. The taxonomy of fifty-five species of Acacia, primarily Western Australian, in section Phyllodineae (Leguminosae: Mimosoideae) as published in the journal Nuytsia. The only synonym is Racosperma acanthaster. Ecology The tree is found as part of Eucalyptus woodland or mallee shrubland communities. It has a discontinuous distribution with the bulk of the population locatedg between Dumbleyung, Lake King and Narembeen where it grows in sand, sandy clay, and granitic loam soils. See also List of Acacia species References acanthaster Acacias of Western Australia Plants described in 1999 Taxa named by Bruce Maslin