Flora of New Zealand Series

Sydney golden wattle

Shrub or small tree; twigs sharply angled, glabrous or sparsely hairy. Lvs reduced to phyllodes, alternate; phyllodes glabrous, narrowly elliptic to obovate, symmetric or slightly curved, acute or obtuse and usually shortly mucronate, entire, (60)-80-130 × 6-22 mm, with 2-(4) prominent veins; stipules lanceolate, 1-3 mm long, not always conspicuous in mature plants. Fls 4-merous and solitary but closely packed in axillary, pale to golden yellow, cylindric spikes; spikes < or = lvs. Pod glabrous or sparsely hairy, straight or slightly curved, 80-120 × c. 4 mm; aril not much folded, thickened and cup-shaped below seed.

N.: established locally in Northland, especially near Kaitaia, locally established in Auckland City and also reported for Ruakura (Hamilton), and Wellington City; S.: established at Motueka Inlet, Nelson.

E. Australia 1897

Waste land, scrubland, especially coastal areas.

FL Jul-Aug.

Both R. longifolium and the very similar R. sophorae (Labill.) C. Martius are cultivated in N.Z. gardens. Nearly all naturalised material can be referred with certainty to R. longifolium, but R. sophorae may be found occasionally as a garden escape. R. sophorae, treated by some authors as a var. of R. longifolium, is distinguished by its broader phyllodes (typically only 3-4× as long as wide), dark reddish brown, extremely contorted pods, and larger seeds. The 2 spp. have usually been recorded in N.Z. as Acacia longifolia and A. sophorae. R. longifolium may be distinguished from R. melanoxylon at fruiting by the slightly folded, cup-shaped aril of the seed (Fig. 70).

The common name, Sydney golden wattle, is also applied to another Racosperma sp., known in N.Z. as Acacia pycnantha Benth., which is cultivated but not naturalised.