The harsh shrub typically grows to a height of . It has light grey to mid-grey coloured bark and glabrous to minutely hairy and rigid branchlets with persistent or caducous stipules that have a length of . Like most species of Acacia it has phyllodes rather than true leaves. The scattered, patent, linear or nearly lanceolate phyllodes form in whorls around the stem and have no stems. The evergreen phyllodes are straight to shallowly curved and quadrangular or flat with a length of and a width of and are smooth, pungent, glabrous, rigid and pungent with five main nerves. It blooms from April to September and produces yellow flowers. The simple inflorescences usually occur singly in the axils on stalks that are in length. The showy spherical flower-heads contain 13 to 50 bright yellow flowers. After flowering papery to crustaceous seed pods form that have a narrowly oblong to linear shape. The glabrous pods have a length of up to and a width of containing longitudinally arranged seeds inside. The dark brown to black coloured arillate seeds have a length of .
