Rounded tree to 15 m or more tall with silvery branches, foliage and new growth, the branches waxy and striped. Leaves bipinnate, stalk 0.5-2 cm long. Pinnae in 8-25 pairs, the glands borne on the main axis between each pair of pinnae. Pinnules of 20-45 pairs, each 2-5 mm long, 0.5 mm broad and covered with minute hairs. Flower clusters in terminal racemes. Flower heads globular, pale yellow; winter to early spring. Fruit pods 5-9 cm long, 7-10 mm wide, bumpy where seeds are enclosed but hardly constricted between them, waxy-blue to purplish brown.
Cultivated both in Australia and overseas. Though growing in dry areas it is at its best in moist gullies. It has a rapid growth rate and produces a gum arabic substitute.
Pinnae 8-25; sometimes confused with A. mearnsii, which lacks the silvery white colouring of the foliage and has glands irregularly spaced along the length of the main axis and petiole.
Tas, Vic, NSW, SA.
Source: (2002). Mimosaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 3. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 2. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.