Intricate, often compact, glabrous shrub to 0.5 (–1) m high. Branchlets spinose, rigid, striate-ribbed. Stipules caducous. Phyllodes subdistant, sessile, patent, inequilaterally triangular-lanceolate to semi-trullate, 4–12 mm long, 0.8–2 mm wide, pungent, rigid, green, 5-veined, with the 2-veined somewhat thickened and vein-like, adaxial margin convex but slightly angled at the gland; midrib prominent. Inflorescences rudimentary 1-headed racemes with axes less than 0.5 mm long; peduncles 2–4 (–6) mm long; basal bracts persistent; heads globular, 11–15-flowered, golden; bracteoles caducous, scarious, rather conspicuous in buds. Flowers 5-merous; sepals united to near apex, ½–⅔ length of petals. Pods prominently rounded over seeds, to 22 mm long, 2.5–3.5 mm wide, undulate, firmly chartaceous. Seeds irregularly oblong to elliptic, c. 2.5 mm long, turgid, sparingly mottled, peripherally ridged; aril depressed, approximately equalling seed length.

Flowers recorded August–October.

Native.

Occurs principally from near Wongan Hills S to Ongerup and E to near Lake King, southwestern Western Australia; one collection from near Broad Arrow.

Grows in a variety of habitats but commonly in sand or clayey sand, often near granite outcrops, in woodland, mallee communities, shrubland or heath.

W.A.: N of Wongan Hills, C.A. Gardner 2723 (K, PERTH); near Broad Arrow, Sept. 1927, C.A. Gardner & W.E. Blackall s.n. (PERTH); 6.4 km N of Ongerup, K. Newbey 976 (PERTH).

Acacia acutata W.Fitzg., Journal of the West Australian Natural History Society 1: 6–7 (1904); Racosperma acutatum (W.Fitzg.) Pedley, Austrobaileya 6(3): 448 (2003). Type: "Cunderdin, August, 1903. – W.V.F."; holo: Cunderdin, W.A., Aug. 1903, W.V. Fitzgerald s.n., NSW; iso: K. See B.R. Maslin & R.S. Cowan, Nuytsia 9(3): 389 (1994), for discussion of types.

Misapplication

Acacia costata auct. non Benth.: G. Bentham, Flora Australiensis 2: 327 (1864), pro parte.

Similar to long phyllode forms of Acacia intricata which has a very reduced calyx, non-undulate pods and inconspicuous bracteoles.

M. Simmons, Acacias of Australia 2: 47 & pl. 1 (1988); B.R. Maslin, Flora of Australia 11A: 406, pl. 51; 530, fig. 70T–W (2001); Acacia acutata W.Fitzg., in FloraBase - the Western Australian Flora: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/browse/profile/3201 [accessed December 2017].

Fitzgerald, W.V. (1904). Additions to the West Australian Flora. Journal of the West Australian Natural History Society 2(1): 3–36.

Similar to long phyllode forms of Acacia intricata which has a very reduced calyx, non-undulate pods and inconspicuous bracteoles.

Adapted from Flora of Australia Volume 11A (2001), product of ABRS, ©Commonwealth of Australia.