Product Description
Acacia trichandra extremely variable in size and habit varying from a small slender shrub of 2 m height to a medium-sized tree to 20 m height and 50 cm bole diameter. Tree form is also very variable, usually slender with a clear bole up to 3 m height and a light feathery but spreading and irregular crown often modified by lopping. Bark on young branches smooth, rougher on bole, grey-brown to blackish-brown with shallow rusty orange-brown vertical fissures. There are 11-20 pairs of pinnae, pinnular rachis 4-6 cm long; leaflets 4-7 mm long, 1-2 mm wide, 30-40 pairs per pinna, linear-oblong, acute at tip, and strongly asymmetric at base. Petiole gland one, or rarely a pair of adjacent glands, unstalked, strongly and deeply cup or crater shaped, round, 1.6-3.4 mm long by 1-1.7 mm wide and 1-2 mm tall, with an additional 1-2 glands at the base of terminal and sub-terminal pairs of pinnae and, where many, at the base of all pairs of pinnae. Flower head 7-10 mm in diameter, 70-130 flowers per head, heads in groups of 3-5 in leaf axils, on actively growing indeterminate shoots; colour variable: stamen filaments white, sometimes tinged pink; anthers very hairy, pale cream-white, pinkish-grey, rose pink or violet, style white, tinged pink or scarlet. Pods 7-11 cm long, 13-23 mm wide, 2-4 per flower head, narrowly or broadly linear-oblong, flat papery, yellow-green or reddish-green often deep maroon and very glossy unripe, becoming pale yellow or deep reddish-brown when ripe, sometimes lustrous, glabrous or covered in dense velvety hairs, opening along both sides. Seeds 3-4 mm wide, 5-7 mm long aligned transversely in pods. The specific name trichandra is derived from the Greek words trich- (hairy) and andrus (male) in reference to the anthers.