The dense, spreading and pungent shrub typically grows to a height of with an intricate habit. It has glabrous branchlets with spinose stipules that are in length and widely spreading. Like most species of Acacia it has phyllodes rather than true leaves. The pungent, evergreen and dimidiate phyllodes have a length of and a width of with a midrib that is not prominent. It blooms from October to December and produces yellow flowers. The simple inflorescences occur singly or in pairs in the axils and have spherical flower-heads containing 26 to 32 golden coloured flowers. Following flowering firmly chartaceous seed pods form that have a narrowly oblong shape with a length of up to and awidth of . The elliptic shaped seeds have a length of about and a linear aril that curves around the base of the seed.
