Acacia latescens
Acacia latescens, commonly known as Ball wattle, is a small tree in the legume family native to the Northern Territory of Australia, especially the Top End. It grows to about 4–9 meters tall and has brown, fissured bark. The young branchlets are smooth and ribbed, and its stipules fall off as it matures.
The tree’s curved phyllodes (leaf-like stems) are smooth and long, typically 80–260 mm by 4–18 mm, with two main veins (sometimes 1 or 3) and small glands along the edge. It flowers from April to July, producing white to cream, globe-shaped flower heads about 4–6 mm wide on short stalks, often in groups.
After flowering, it forms greyish pods that are 50–210 mm long and 11–20 mm wide. The seeds are dark brown to black, about 9–10 mm long and 5–7 mm wide, and are arranged obliquely inside the pod. The tree fruits from August to January.
Ball wattle grows in eucalyptus woodland across many Northern Territory bioregions. It was first described by George Bentham in 1842 from a specimen collected by Allan Cunningham on May Day Island in van Diemen’s Gulf during the Mermaid expedition of 1818.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 16:44 (CET).