Splendid Wattle  |  

The splendid wattle is a tall, spindly shrub to 4 m, or rarely a tree to 8 m, with one to four stems arising at ground level. These plants often spread by root suckers. The main stems have smooth light grey bark with a white bloom at first, which becomes rough and dark grey with age. Upper branches can be similar or smooth, and branchlets are thick and slightly angled. The phyllodes are bluish-green and are highly variable in size, shape and curvature, having juvenile, adolescent and adult forms. Juvenile phyllodes are a broad egg-shape, to 9 cm long and 6 cm wide, with a whitish bloom. Adult phyllodes are longer and narrower, to 12 cm long and 3 cm wide. The showy golden densely flowered heads are oblong to globular, up to 12 mm in diameter and are held towards the ends of branchlets. The purple-brown pods are flat but gently rounded over seeds, up to 11 cm long and 8-12 mm wide. This species is closely related to Acacia microbotrya (Manna wattle) and Acacia daphnifolia, from which it differs in its pruinose branchlets and pods (the trunks are also smooth and whitepruinose, at least on young plants), more numerous flowers per head, broader phyllodes (especially the juvenile ones) and narrowly oblong pods. It is further distinguished from A. microbotrya by its golden-coloured heads and from A. daphnifolia by its smaller seeds.