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Acacia baileyana
Also called Bailey's Acacia, Bailey's Wattle, Baileys Wattle
Cootamundra wattle is a fast-growing, small tree or shrub with feathery grey-green foliage and bright yellow, fragrant pompom flowers in winter. It is adaptable and drought tolerant, but it can spread into bushland in some regions.
Acacia baileyana, commonly known as Cootamundra wattle, Bailey's wattle or golden mimosa, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to a restricted area of New South Wales, although it has become naturalised in other parts of Australia. It is a shrub or tree with smooth bark, bipinnate leaves with mostly two to four pairs of oblong to narrowly oblong leaflets, spherical heads of bright yellow flowers arranged in 8 to 36 racemes in leaf axils, and straight, leathery pods up to 100 mm (3.9 in) long.
This plant is adaptable and easy to grow. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. Unfortunately, it has an ability to naturalise (i.e. escape) into surrounding bushland. Also, it hybridises with some other wattles, notably the rare and endangered Sydney Basin species Acacia pubescens.
A prostrate weeping form is in cultivation. Its origin is unknown, but it is a popular garden plant, with its cascading horizontal branches good for rockeries. The fine foliage of the original Cootamundra wattle is grey-green, but a blue-purple foliaged form, known as 'Purpurea' is very popular.
Cootamundra wattle is endemic to the Temora-Cootamundra district where it grows in open forest, woodland and mallee in stony soils on creek flats and hilly country.
Acacia baileyana is used in Europe in the cut flower industry. It is also used as food for bees in the production of honey. American urban landscape designer Renée Gunter uses this plant in her South Los Angeles lawn as a drought-resistant alternative to thirstier plants.
Jam wattle · Mulga · Acacia aneura var. major · Mulga · Earleaf acacia · Gidgee · Bower wattle · Cole's Wattle · Small Philippine acacia · Knife acacia · Silver Wattle · Graceful wattle
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Acacia baileyana by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
