Acacia longifolia

Sydney golden wattle

Family: Fabaceae · Type: shrub · Not Native

Conservation status: Cal-IPC Yes

Sydney golden wattle is a naturalized shrub found in coastal California regions including the Central Coast, San Francisco Bay Area, Southern California, San Gabriel Mountains, and Peninsular Ranges in disturbed places, especially sandy coastal areas at elevations below 150 meters. Flowering from January to April, this plant produces cream or bright yellow flowers in short spikes 2 to 5 centimeters long. Growing as a small shrub or tree up to 10 meters tall with angled twigs, it forms a dense, multi-stemmed structure. Its simple leaves are narrowly elliptic to lance-linear, 5 to 15 centimeters long and 10 to 25 millimeters wide, with 2 to 4 longitudinal veins. The fruit is a leathery, cylindric pod 5 to 15 centimeters long, ranging from light to dark brown in color.

Habitat: Uncommon. Disturbed places, especially sandy coastal areas

Bloom period: Jan-Apr

Elevation: < 150 m

Bioregions: CCo, SnFrB, SCo, SnGb, PR

California counties: Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz, Solano, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Ventura, San Bernardino, Marin, Alameda, Contra Costa, Mono, Sacramento, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Yolo

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.