mealy wattle

Acacia farinosa is a rounded shrub that typically grows to a height of 1–2 m (3 ft 3 in – 6 ft 7 in) and has glabrous, terete branchlets that have soft hairs pressed against the surface. Its phyllodes are ascending, oblanceolate to linear, mostly 20–70 mm (0.79–2.76 in) long, 2–6 mm (0.079–0.236 in) wide, rigid, thick and more or less fleshy. There is a gland 2–9 mm (0.079–0.354 in) above the base of the phyllode. The flowers are borne in spherical heads on a peduncle 2–4 mm (0.079–0.157 in) long, each head 3.5–4 mm (0.14–0.16 in) in diameter with seven to seventeen golden yellow flowers. Flowering occurs from July to November, and the pods are linear, crusty, rigid, curved and twisted, up to 60 mm (2.4 in) long, 2–3 mm (0.079–0.118 in) wide and glabrous. The seeds are elliptic, 3.5–4.0 mm (0.14–0.16 in) long and black with a small aril on the end.

Mealy wattle mostly grows in sand or loam in shrubland and woodland, often with lerp mallee (Eucalyptus incrassata), in the Eyre and Yorke Peninsulas, on Kangaroo Island and south-eastern South Australia, and extending to western Victoria between Edenhope and Swan Hill.