''Acacia suaveolens'' (sweet wattle) is a

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

species endemic to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It grows to between 0.3 and 3.5 metres high and has smooth purplish-brown or light green bark and has straight or slightly curving blue-green

phyllode Phyllodes are modified petioles or leaf stems, which are leaf-like in appearance and function. In some plants, these become flattened and widened, while the leaf itself becomes reduced or vanishes altogether. Thus the phyllode comes to serve the ...

s The pale yellow to near white globular flower heads generally appear between April and September in its native range. These are followed by flattened, bluish oblong pods which are up to 2 to 5 cm long and 8 to 19 mm wide. The species was first formally described by English botanist James Edward Smith in 1791 in '' Transactions of the Linnean Society of London'' He described it with reference to a cultivated plant at

Syon House Syon House is the west London residence of the Duke of Northumberland. A Grade I listed building, it lies within the 200-acre (80 hectare) Syon Park, in the London Borough of Hounslow. The family's traditional central London residence had be ...

which had been raised by Thomas Hoy from seed that originated from New South Wales. The species was transferred into the genus ''

Acacia ''Acacia'', commonly known as the wattles or acacias, is a large genus of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa and Australasia. The genus na ...

'' by Carl Ludwig Willdenow in 1806. The species occurs naturally on sandy soils in heathland and dry sclerophyll forest in South Australia and Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales and Queensland.

Cultivation

This species provides winter colour in a garden and may be used as a low screen plant.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2822205 suaveolens Flora of South Australia Flora of Victoria (Australia) Fabales of Australia