Pearl's mother has only a quarter acre (5)

I believe the answer is:

nacre

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'pearl's' is the definition.
(nacre is another name for mother-of-pearl)

'quarter acre' is the wordplay.
'quarter' becomes 'n' ().
'n'+'acre'='NACRE'

'mother has only a' is the link.
This may not be right. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for nacre that I've seen before include "inside of shell" , "Mother of pearl" , "Mother-of-pearl - crane (anag)" , "Constituent of inlay furniture" , "Mother-of-pearl from shellfish" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.

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