The bush or tree typically grows to a maximum height of and has smooth grey bark on the main stem and branched with more yellowish coloured bark on the upper branches. It can have an open an straggly a sometimes dense habit. The
glabrous branchlets are often covered in a fine white powdery coating and have spinose
stipules. Like most species of
Acacia it has
phyllodes rather than true leaves. The blue-grey to grey-green pungent and coriaceous phyllodes usually have an elliptic to obovate or orbicular shape with a length of and a width of and have a prominent and central midrib. The simple
inflorescences occur along a long
raceme with showy, spherical flower-heads that are densely packed with 70 to 80 bright golden coloured flowers. Following flowering shallowly curved to openly once-coiled
seed pods form that have a narrowly oblong shape and are rounded over seeds. The firmly chartaceous pods are up to in length and wide and contain dull dark brown coloured seeds with a broadly elliptic to ovate shape. ==Taxonomy==