Acacia difformis

Drooping wattle
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Rosids
Order:	Fabales
Family:	Fabaceae
Subfamily:	Caesalpinioideae
Clade:	Mimosoid clade
Genus:	Acacia
Species:	A. difformis
Binomial name
Acacia difformis R.T.Baker [1]
Occurrence data from AVH
Synonyms [1]
Racosperma difforme(R.T.Baker) Pedley

Habit in Milbrulong State Forest

Acacia difformis commonly known as drooping wattle, Wyalong wattle or mystery wattle ^[2] is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to continental south-eastern Australia. It is a shrub or rounded tree that often forms suckers and has narrowly lance-shaped to narrowly elliptic or linear phyllodes, spherical heads of light golden yellow flowers and pods that are thinly leathery to crusty, and more or less resemble a string of beads.

Description

Acacia difformis is an irregularly formed shrub or rounded tree that typically grows to a height of 2–7 m (6 ft 7 in – 23 ft 0 in) and often forms suckers, leading to thickets. Its branchlets are reddish brown and glabrous. The phyllodes are often pendulous, narrowly lance-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, or narrowly elliptic or linear, straight to shallowly curved down, mostly 60–160 mm (2.4–6.3 in) long, 5–15 mm (0.20–0.59 in) wide and glabrous with a prominent midvein. There are one or two glands up to 30 mm (1.2 in) above the base of the phyllodes. The flowers are borne in spherical heads in 8 to 25 racemes 10–60 mm (0.39–2.36 in) long on glabrous peduncles 3–6 mm (0.12–0.24 in) long, each head with 20 to 35 light golden yellow flowers. Flowering often occurs from January and February, sometimes between June and September, and the pods are thinly leathery to crusty, up to 200 mm (7.9 in) long and 4–6 mm (0.16–0.24 in) wide and more or less resemble a string of beads. The seeds are oblong to elliptic, 6.5–8 mm (0.26–0.31 in) long and dark brown with a club-shaped aril. ^{[2] [3] [4] [5] [6]}

Taxonomy

Acacia difformis was first formally described in 1897 by Richard Baker in the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales . ^{[7] [8]} The specific epithet (difformis) means 'irregularly or unevenly or differently formed', apparently referring to Baker's comments about "broad' and 'narrow' phyllodes. ^[2]

Distribution and habitat

Drooping wattle grows in sandy soils, usually in mallee communities or open forest on the inland slopes of the Great Dividing Range from Cobar and Merrygoen in New South Wales to Dimboola in Victoria. ^[2]

See also

• List of Acacia species

References

1. "Acacia difformis". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 28 August 2025.
2. Maslin, Bruce R.; Kodela, Phillip G. "Acacia difformis". Flora of Australia. Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water: Canberra. Retrieved 4 October 2025.
3. "Acacia difformis". World Wide Wattle. Retrieved 4 October 2025.
4. "Acacia difformis". Australian Biological Resources Study. Retrieved 4 October 2025.
5. Entwisle, Timothy J.; Maslin, Bruce R.; Cowan, Richard S.; Court, Arthur B. "Acacia difformis". Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. Retrieved 4 October 2025.
6. Kodela, Phillip G.; Harden, Gwen J. "Acacia difformis". Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney. Retrieved 4 October 2025.
7. "Acacia difformis". APNI. Retrieved 4 October 2025.
8. Baker, R.T. (1897). "Descriptions of two new species of Acacia from New South Wales". Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales. 22 (1): 154, t. ix. Retrieved 4 September 2020.