Shrub or erect tree to 10 m high, spreading. Stipules, if present, setaceous, 0.5–2 mm long. Phyllodes alternate, fascicled or whorled, sessile, readily disarticulating, acicular-quadrangular, linear or lanceolate, 5–25 mm long, 0.2–7 mm wide, pungent, rigid, mostly glabrous, with 1 vein, or rarely more; gland small. Inflorescences with peduncles 2–15 mm long, glabrous or pubescent; spikes to 4.5 cm long or heads ovoid or globular; bracteoles ovate-navicular, sometimes sharply pointed, 1–3 mm long, minutely ciliate below. Flowers usually densely packed, 4-merous; sepals united. Pods linear, compressed, hardly constricted between seeds, 2–8 cm long, 3–5 mm wide, with thin valves. Seeds elliptic, c. 3–4 mm long; funicle filamentous for c. 2 mm and then folded and thickened into an oblique, turbinate aril.
Acacia verticillata features on the $5 Australian banknote released on 1 September 2016, as part of the Next Generation of Banknotes featuring Australian native wattles and birds. The abstract illustrations have elements of several of the varieties, which may be appropriate since A. verticillata is a complex taxon with occasional intergrades between the varieties. However, the narrow phyllodes arranged in clusters on the branchlets (not in whorls) and somewhat obloid, pale yellow flower-heads depicted on the note are suggestive of var. ovoidea.
Can be grown by cuttings or seedlings. Seeds needs soaking.
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