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A shrub or tree to 15 m tall, with smooth bark, spreading to several metres wide.
It has a limited distribution and considered rare, with few records databased near the Gloucester (The Bucketts Way), to Mt Yengo in Howes Valley, near the junction of the Central Coast and North Coast botanical subdivisions, of NSW.
Australian Wattles at least, can be broadly placed into 1 of 3 recognisable groups:
Phyllodes and bipinnate leaves are always alternate to clustered, never opposite.
This wattle belongs to Group 3.
Leaves are compound-bipinnate (jacaranda-type), to about 8 cm long; and have a silvery-grey colour due to the presence of hairs, on the upper and lower surface. Each pinnule (leaflet) is oblong-elliptic to 1 cm long.
Acacia spp. produce small 5-merous flowers, with 5 very small petals partly-fused into a short tube which sits above a fused calyx. The stamens are the main feature which are produced in high numbers per flower (staminate flowers), surrounding a single style. In this species, flowers are first produced in globular heads, to about 8 mm diameter, with up to 40 very small staminate flowers per head, bright yellow. The heads are arranged in axillary and terminal panicles or racemes, chiefly produced in winter, up to about 10 to 15 cm long.
Seed pods straight to curved, to 12 cm long, and about 0.6 cm wide.
It is known to be cultivated (see references) and is reported to be an attractive plant and useful as a shelter tree. Give extra water in dry periods. Foliage has a beautiful velvet texture and reddish-brown growth.
Acacias can suffer from a number of pests, including borers, scale, galls and leaf miners. Growing plants suitable to your local environment minimises these occurring.
Propagation is easy from scarified seed by covering with boiling water for 24 hours and discarding any seeds still floating on the surface.
Most wattles regenerate from seed after fire with some species suckering from the basal areas.
Acacia is a highly diverse genus, with over 1500 recognised species (placing it in the top-10 most-diverse plant genera) occurring in most continents except for Europe. Australia has about 970 spp., most of which are endemic. There are also about 10 exotic species. NSW has about 235 recognised species. Some species have become weeds in other states outside of their natural range (e.g., wattles from Western Australia into NSW and vice versa).
Acacia – from Greek Akakia – which refers to an Ancient Greek preparation made from one of the many species; the name of which derives from akis, meaning “thorn” – referring to the thorns of species in Africa.
fulva – Latin for yellow, usually a term that means “deep yellow, reddish-yellow, or golden”, which pertains to the attractive reddish-brown colour of the new growth.
This species is not considered to be at risk of extinction in the wild – but it is rare.
NSW Flora Online (PlantNET) – Acacia fulva profile page https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Acacia~fulva
Gardening with Angus – Acacia fulva profile page
https://www.gardeningwithangus.com.au/acacia-fulva-soft-wattle/