Medium sized shrub to small tree with drooping braches and pale green/grey linear leaves. Often grows in small clusters where the parent tree is surrounded by smaller trees produced by suckering. Flowers are tubular and are pinkish often spotted or mottled with a deep red colour.

A tall shrub, sometimes dense and rounded but scrawny in poor soil or when grown with competition. The dark green phyllodes (flattened leaf-like stems which replace the true leaves as the main photosynthetic structure) are typically broad and sub-glossy.

A medium shrub, typically dense and rounded but may be sparse in less fertile soils or in hsade. The dark green phyllodes (flattened leaf-like stems which replace the true leaves as the main photosynthetic structure)are arranged in a curious manner, being small and wavy and with their blade aligned along the stem. This causes the leaves to be interwoven with the fine, spiny stipules that emerge from the junction of the stem and the phyllode. It is distinctive relative to other indigenous wattles around Melbourne