Acacia acinacea

Gold Dust Wattle

Acacia acinacea, commonly known as gold dust wattle, wreath wattle or round-leaf wattle, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to south-eastern continental Australia
It is a bushy or straggling shrub with asymmetric, narrowly oblong to broadly egg-shaped phyllodes with the narrower end towards the base, flowers arranged in a spherical heads 4.0–4.5 mm in diameter with 8 to 20 flowers, and a spirally coiled to twisted pods up to 3.0–4.5 mm long

Common name: Gold Dust Wattle

Conservation status: ...

Etymology:

Borrowed from Latin acacia, from Ancient Greek ἀκακία (akakía) "a thorny Egyptian tree", from ἀκή (akḗ) "point, thorn

Flowers:

There is a small point on the end of the phyllodes, off-set from the tip
It blooms, usually prolifically, between July and November producing one or two spherical heads in each leaf axil, the heads with a diameter of 4 to 4.5 mm containing 8 to 20 golden-yellow flowers

Fruit:

The pods are spirally coiled to twisted, 3.0–4.5 mm wide and glabrous, with a hard outer surface
The seeds are shiny, more or less oblong and 4 to 5 mm with a club-shaped aril that is up to half as long as the seed

Leaves:

Its phyllodes are asymmetric, narrowly oblong to lance-shaped or egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base
They are 4–15 mm long and 2 to 8 mm wide

Stem & branches:

Roots:

Habit:

Acacia acinacea is a bushy or straggling, open shrub that typically grows to a height of around 2.5 m

Habitat:

It is often found in hilly country and grows well in sand, sandy loam and gravelly soils as a part of Eucalyptus woodlands, woodland heath and open mallee scrubland communities

Distribution:

Widespread from near Melrose in South Australia, including in the Mount Lofty Ranges, Kangaroo Island and southern Flinders Ranges, throughout most of Victoria, and south from the Gilgandra district in NSW

Additional notes:

Taxonomy
- The species was first formally described by the botanist John Lindley in 1838 as part of Thomas Mitchell's work Three Expeditions into the interior of Eastern Australia.[8][9] The specific epithet, acinacea, derives from the Latin for a short Persian sword (acinaces) and references the shape of the phyllodes

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