Golden-rods

Acacia longifolia is a fast-growing evergreen shrub or small tree of the legume family reaching 3-10 m tall with a spreading, often dense crown. Mature plants bear bright green, narrowly elliptic to oblong-lanceolate phyllodes (modified petioles) 5-20 cm long and 5-25 mm wide, with 2-4 prominent longitudinal veins and entire margins; juvenile foliage is bipinnate but soon replaced. Inflorescences are bright golden-yellow cylindrical spikes 2-5 cm long borne in pairs in the leaf axils, each spike composed of many small, sweetly fragrant, five-merous flowers with prominent stamens. Fruits are nearly cylindrical to slightly flattened, somewhat constricted between the seeds, 5-12 cm long, glabrous, and turn brown at maturity, releasing dark seeds attached by a characteristic yellow-orange folded aril. Native to coastal south-eastern Australia in heathlands, woodlands, and dune systems, the species is widely planted as an ornamental and dune-stabiliser and has become invasive in many warm-temperate regions. Flowering occurs in late winter and spring.