Alice Springs Desert Park

Alice Springs Desert ParkFauna Flora Nature Theatre Nocturnal House

The spiny leaves of Dead Finish (Acacia tetragonophylla) protect the nests of finches. Bird droppings found in abandoned nests are used for traditional medicinal treatments.

The Dead Finish is often a straggly looking shrub that can grown to about 2-3 metres high. The name ‘Dead Finish’ is said to come from a saying that ‘when the cows start eating the Dead Finish bush, everything else has died’ or ‘in a bad drought, this is the last bush to die’.

Common name
Dead Finish. Aboriginal Arrernte name is Arlketyerre (pounounced: arl-KIT-chur-ra).

More information in our Flora section about Dead Finish (Acacia tetragonophylla)


  • Scientific classification
  • Kingdom: Plantae
  • Clade: Tracheophytes
  • Clade: Angiosperms
  • Clade: Eudicots
  • Clade: Rosids
  • Order: Fabales
  • Family: Fabaceae
  • Clade: Mimosoideae
  • Genus: Acacia
  • Species: Acacia tetragonophylla

ASDP FloraFlora Index Batswing Coral Tree Blue Mallee Bush Banana Buttercup Pigweed Dead Finish Desert Grevillea Desert Oak Desert Raisin Field Lily Georges Indigo Golden Everlasting Honey Grevillea Kangaroo Grass Lamarchea sulcata Myoporum acuminatum (Boobialla) Native Apricot Native Bluebell Native Cotton Bush Native Tomato Nicotiana megalosiphon subsp sessilifolia Olearia ferresii Parrot Pea Pink Everlasting Poached Egg Daisy Potato Vine Quandong Rattlepod Grevillea Red-bud Mallee Red Mulga Resurrection Fern Rough Halgania Sandover Lily Silkyheads Small Yellow Button (Chrysocephalum apiculatum) Spearwood Bush Sturt’s Desert Pea Waddy-wood Walukara Weeping Spinifex White Spider Flower Wild Passionfruit Witchetty Bush Wildflower Display

Alice Springs Desert ParkFauna Flora Nature Theatre Nocturnal House