green wattle

Acacia irrorata is an erect shrub or tree that typically grows to a height of 4–12 m (13–39 ft) and usually has smooth bark and ridged branchlets covered with soft yellow or white hairs. The leaves are dark green and bipinnate on a petiole 7–21 mm (0.28–0.83 in) long, with 5 to 21 pairs of pinnae 15–45 mm (0.59–1.77 in) long on a rachis 20–110 mm (0.79–4.33 in) long, each pinna with 15 to 72 crowded, overlapping pinnules mostly 2–5 mm (0.079–0.197 in) long and 0.4–0.7 mm (0.016–0.028 in) wide. There are sometimes glands on the lowest pairs of pinnae. The flowers are borne in spherical heads in racemes or panicles in axils or on the ends of branches, the heads with 15 to 50 usually cream-coloured to pale yellow flowers on peduncles 2–7 mm (0.079–0.276 in) long. Flowering occurs in any month and the pods are 20–120 mm (0.79–4.72 in) long and 5–11.5 mm (0.20–0.45 in) wide, more or less flat, leathery, black and appearing somewhat like a string of beads.

Green wattle is mainly found on the coast and ranges of New South Wales and south-east Queensland, north from Bermagui in forest or the edges of rainforest, often near watercourses.