Acacia drepanocarpa is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to the northern Australia. It is a sticky shrub with yellowish, ridged branchlets, linear to narrowly elliptic phyllodes, spikes of pale to bright yellow flowers and linear, leathery to thinly woody pods.
Acacia drepanocarpa is a sticky shrub that typically grows to a height of and has yellowish, , ridged and often scurvy branchlets that are angular on the ends. Its phyllodes are linear to narrowly elliptic, long and wide with three to five prominent, raised veins. There is a gland usually up to above the base of the phyllode. The flowers are pale to bright yellow and borne in spikes long. Flowering time depends on subspecies, and the pods are linear, thick, glabrous, leathery to thinly woody, encrusted in resin, long and mostly wide. The seeds are narrowly oblong, long and dark brown with a narrowly cone-shaped aril.
Acacia drepanocarpa was first formally described in 1859 by Ferdinand von Mueller in the Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Botany from specimens collected near the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Acacia drepanocarpa belongs to the A. stigmatophylla group.
In 1974, Leslie Pedley described two subspecies of A. drepanocarpa in Contributions from the Queensland Herbarium, and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:
The specific epithet (drepanocarpa) means 'sickle-fruited', presumably because the pods were originally described by Ferdinand von Mueller as 'subfalcate' (that is, slightly curved). However, this would seem to be an inappropriate name for this species as the pods are more typically straight (except following seed drop, where the pod valves are turned backwards).
Both subspecies of A. drepanocarpa are listed as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions and as of "least concern" under the Northern Territory Government Territory Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act.