Spreading tree to c. 10 m high. Branchlets angular and, as the young phyllodes, covered by a whitish bloom, glabrous. Phyllodes thick, obovate-falcate, basiscopic margin ± straight, acroscopic one curved, broadest above the middle, apex obtuse, base attenuate, 4.5-11 by 1-4.5 cm, 2-3.5(-6) times as long as wide, pulvinus 0.4-0.6 cm, with a gland at the base, elliptic, with distinct rim, 1 mm; prominent longitudinal veins 3, with c. 6 secondary longitudinal veins, densely reticulately veined in between (forming ± square 'vein-islands'). Glomerules at first covered with white bloom, c. 3-5 mm in diameter, in axillary or sometimes terminal, 3-5-branched racemes which later on may grow into leafy shoots, peduncles glabrous, 0.4-0.7 cm. Flowers yellow, pentamerous. Calyx 1-1.4 mm, glabrous, lobes oblong, 0.5-0.7 mm. Corolla 1.5-1.9 mm, glabrous, lobes oblong, 0.7-0.9 mm. Stamens 3-4 mm. Ovary sessile, somewhat scurfy. Pod brown, scurfy to glabrous, twisted or coiled, flat, at least 12 by 0.9-1.5 cm, valves chartaceous, with reticulate veins. Seeds longitudinal, black, shining, ovate-elliptic to elliptic, 4-5.2 by 3-4.5 mm; areole oblong, c. 3 by 2.5 mm, closed; funicle translucent, red, thickened, passing for ¾ to completely around the seed, then folded back and considerably thickened to form the hilum.
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Spreading tree 3–10 m high. Bark fibrous, fissured. Branchlets white scurfy. Phyllodes inequilaterally obovate-oblanceolate to narrowly elliptic, mostly 5–8 cm long and 1.5–3.5 cm wide, rounded-obtuse, glabrous, scurfy when young, with 3 or more distant main nerves (the lowermost sometimes confluent with the lower margin at the base), prominently reticulate between main veins; gland basal. Inflorescences axillary or sometimes terminal 3–5-branched racemes; raceme axes 8–18 mm long, scurfy; peduncles 4–11 mm long, scurfy; heads globular, scurfy in bud, ± 5 mm diam., 30–45-flowered, cream to pale yellow. Flowers 5-merous; sepals ¼–½-united. Pods openly coiled to twisted, to 12 cm long, 1–1.5 cm wide, scurfy, margins prominent. Seeds longitudinal, ± 4 mm long, black; areole closed; aril/funicle (¾–) wholly encircling seed, red or orange.
Detailsof the utilisation of Acacia oraria are given in J.W. Turnbull (ed.), Multipurpose Australian Trees & Shrubs 176–177 (1986) and J.C. Doran et al., in J.C. Doran & J.W. Turnbull (eds), Australian Trees and Shrubs: Species for Land Rehabilitation and Farm Planting in the Tropics 194–195 (1997). In Indonesia the timber is used for building houses (Beasley 2009: 32).
Can be grown by seedlings. Seeds needs soaking.
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