Acidonia microcarpa is a species of shrub in the plant family Proteaceae

Proteaceae

Proteaceae is a family of flowering plants distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. The family comprises about 80 genera with about 1600 species. Together with the Platanaceae and Nelumbonaceae they make up the order Proteales. Well known genera include Protea, Banksia, Embothrium, Grevillea,...

. It is endemic to the south coast of the Southwest Botanic Province of Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

.

It was originally published by Robert Brown

Robert Brown (botanist)

Robert Brown was a Scottish botanist and palaeobotanist who made important contributions to botany largely through his pioneering use of the microscope...

 in 1810 as a species of Persoonia

Persoonia

Persoonia is a genus of 98 species of shrubs and small trees in the tribe Persoonioideae in the large and diverse plant family Proteaceae. In the eastern states of Australia, they are commonly known as Geebungs, while in Western Australia and South Australia they go by the common name Snottygobbles...

. In 1975, Lawrence Alexander Sidney Johnson

Lawrence Alexander Sidney Johnson

Lawrence Alexander Sidney Johnson, known as Lawrie Johnson, was an Australian taxonomic botanist. He worked at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney, for the whole of his professional career, as a botanist , Director and Honorary Research Associate .Alone or in collaboration with colleagues, he...

 and Barbara G. Briggs

Barbara G. Briggs

Barbara Gillian Briggs is one of the foremost Australian botanists. The IK lists 205 names of plants which have been published or co-published by her. She was one of the botanists in the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, of the APG system....

erected the genus Acidonia, transferring a great many Persoonia species into it. Later, the circumscription of Acidonia was changed to include only A. microcarpa.