Tall waxy-blue to green shrub with mostly pendulous branches. Phyllodes linear, 5-14 cm long, 4-8 mm wide, 1-nerved, the tip with a short curved point, a small gland on the upper margin 0.5-1 cm from the base. Flower clusters of 8-12 heads with prominent reddish brown bracts that fall away as the globular, pale yellow, 12- flowered heads open; autumn and winter. Fruit pods 6-12 cm long, 7-10 mm wide.

A. rostellifera Benth. from WA has phyllodes 8-15 cm long, 1-1.5 cm wide, with a pronounced curved hook at the tip; A. suaveolens (Sm.) Willd., Sweet Wattle, from SA and E Australia also has these distinctive flower bracts but differs from A. rostellifera in having branchlets flattish to triangular and green, not angular and waxy, 6-10 flowers per head (not about 12) and pods 2-4 cm long (not 6-12 cm).

SA.

Unusual brown-pink bracts before flowers open.

Source: Spencer, R. (2002). Mimosaceae. In: Spencer, R.. 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.