Flat Wattle

Acacia glaucoptera is a prostrate or semi-prostrate, sprawling to erect shrub that typically grows to a height of 0.3–1.5 m (1 ft 0 in – 4 ft 11 in) and often has somewhat gangling branches. The branchlets are glabrous and straight to slightly winding. The phyllodes are continuous with the branchlets, forming wings on alternate sides, each wing extending to the one below, usually 25–70 mm (0.98–2.76 in) long and 6–20 mm (0.24–0.79 in) wide, the free part of the phyllode usually 10–40 mm (0.39–1.57 in) long. The flowers are borne in a spherical head in leaf axils on a peduncle 3–18 mm (0.12–0.71 in) long, the heads 5–6 mm (0.20–0.24 in) in diameter with 30 to 80 golden yellow flowers. Flowering mainly occurs between August and December with the main flush between August and October. The pods are irregularly coiled and twisted, up to 20 mm (0.79 in) long and 2–3 mm (0.079–0.118 in) wide, thinly crusty, black and glabrous. The seeds are more or less oblong, 2.5–3.5 mm (0.098–0.138 in) long with a conical aril on the end.

Clay wattle grows in clay and gravelly soils in woodland, shrubland and mallee from near Narrogin, south to near Manypeaks and east to Israelite Bay in the Avon Wheatbelt, Esperance Plains, Jarrah Forest and Mallee bioregions of south-western Western Australia.

This species is often grown for its unusual wing-like phyllodes. It requires good drainage and occasional pruning to remove dead wood. It will withstand temperatures down to −7 °C.