The tree typically grows to a height of 3.5 to 13 metres (11 to 43 ft)[1] and has fibrous, grey to brown coloured bark on both the trunk and branches. It has grey to brown branchlets that are almost terete which can be densely pubescent or glabrous. Like most species of Acacia it has phyllodes rather than true leaves. The evergreen, narrowly elliptic phyllodes have a tapered base and are 5.5 to 14 cm (2.2 to 5.5 in) in length and 15 to 40 mm (0.59 to 1.57 in) wide. The thinly coriaceous phyllodes are silvery-white and covered in a dense mat of woolly hair when young and have five to nine prominent longitudinal nerves.[2] It blooms from May to September producing yellow flowers.[1]
It is native to an area in the Kimberley region of Western Australia,[1] to the top end of the Northern Territory, and north-west Queensland.[3] It is quite common in the northern parts of the Northern Territory and is also found on Thursday Island and Melville Island, it is much rarer in Western Australia where it is found around Kununurra and is also found near the Gulf of Carpentaria in Queensland. It is usually situated along creeks growing in sandy or gravelly soils as a part of open woodland communities where it is often associated with Eucalyptus tetrodonta.[2]
^M.D. Tindale, P.G. Kodela & B.R. Maslin (2020). "Acacia difficilis". Flora of Australia. Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, Canberra. Retrieved 2020-02-27.
