Hardiness zones
Sunset 8 - 24
USDA 9 - 11

Landscape Use: Xeric landscape design themes only, sprawling large scale ground cover for expansive spaces, freeway and interstate embankments.

Form & Character: Short-lived (15-20 years maximum), evergreen, stiff and generally vigorously spreading.

Growth Habit: Stiffly branched, fast growth rate to a horizontal spread of 30' (mostly 10' to 20'). Can eventually 'billow' to heights of 4' to 6', though low growing cultivars stay at 2' tall.  Has a tendency to build up a stiff array of dead branches (thatch) underneath it's canopy with age.

Foliage/texture: Lanceolate shaped phyllodes that vary in length (2" to 6") and color (grey green to green); medium texture.

Flowers & fruits: Flowers yellow borne in axillary meristems, not particularly showy. Fruit is a inconspicuous, non-descript pod.

Seasonal color: Diffuse yellow flower effect in spring.

Temperature: Heat-loving and cold tolerant to 15^oF.

Light: Full sun

Soil: Tolerant of alkaline soils, although the phyllodes tend to yellow somewhat in soils of high alkalinity and salinity. Chelate micronutrient fertilizers will correct this problem quickly but a rarely required.

Watering: Some additional water from irrigation after establishment is needed to maintain plant health and vigor in desert regions of Arizona and eastern California. No supplemental irrigation is required for use of prostrate acacia in coastal California.

Pruning: Little pruning is needed if prostrate acacia is properly located within large landscape space. Unfortunately, prostrate acacia is often planted is landscape spaces that are much too small for it to grow to it's natural spread thus requiring frequent hedging of spreading branches.

Propagation: Seed, acid or mechanical scarification needed. Semi hardwood cuttings are successful during the summer months only.

Disease and pests: Prone to soil borne fungal pathogens in poorly drained soil

Additional comments: Prostrate acacia from seed is highly variable in form and can grow as a mounding shrub. Also, prostrate acacia follows the James Dean principle of growing fast and dieing young. 'Desert Carpet^TM' (Mountain States Wholesale Nursery) and  'Low Boy' (San Marcos Growers) are two cultivars with intensely prostrate growth habits. Does not take well to foot traffic when used as a ground cover because of its brittle stems and branches.