Acacia pruinosa

Acacia pruinosa, the Frosty Wattle, is a medium to tall shrub.

The Frosty Wattle is found in northern NSW, on the north western slopes and northern tablelands, in a moderately narrow corridor from Tamworth to border, continuing into Queensland in a patchy distribution to the west of Warwick and Toowoomba, as far north as Tara.

It grows in dry sclerophyll woodland and forest on granite.

Australian Wattles at least, can be broadly placed into 1 of 3 recognisable groups:

• Group 1: Those that produce juvenile compound-bipinnate leaves and then change to producing adult-phyllodes which are modified-flattened petioles which form the foliage. This is combined with flowers produced in globular balls or heads (or ovoid heads). The heads can be singular in leaf/phyllode axils or arranged in groups.
• Group 2: As for Group 1 but flowers are produced in longer rod-like spikes.
• Group 3: Those that never produce phyllodes and retain the juvenile compound-bipinnate foliage into adulthood. These always produce flowers in globular balls (which are secondarily arranged into panicle or raceme-like groups in many cases).

This species belongs to Group 3.

The leaves are bipinnate, to 15 cm long and 15 cm across, with 9-20 pairs of pinnules (leaflets) per compound leaf, The pinnules are grey-blue and up to 20 mm long by 5 mm wide.

Globular flower heads are produced to 10 mm in diametre, amazingly carrying from 40-60 very small staminate and deep yellow flowers. The heads are grouped in long racemes or panicles of up to 20, in leaf axils, occurring between August and November.

The pods, that follow the flowers, are up to 14 centimetres long, leathery and constricted between seeds. They ripen between November and January. This is the normal seed ripening period for all spring flowering wattles.