Intricate, often compact, glabrous shrub to 0.5 (–1) m high. Branchlets spinose, rigid, striate-ribbed. Stipules caducous. Phyllodes subdistant, sessile, patent, inequilaterally triangular-lanceolate to semi-trullate, 4–12 mm long, 0.8–2 mm wide, pungent, rigid, green, 5-veined, with the 2-veined somewhat thickened and vein-like, adaxial margin convex but slightly angled at the gland; midrib prominent. Inflorescences rudimentary 1-headed racemes with axes less than 0.5 mm long; peduncles 2–4 (–6) mm long; basal bracts persistent; heads globular, 11–15-flowered, golden; bracteoles caducous, scarious, rather conspicuous in buds. Flowers 5-merous; sepals united to near apex, ½–⅔ length of petals. Pods prominently rounded over seeds, to 22 mm long, 2.5–3.5 mm wide, undulate, firmly chartaceous. Seeds irregularly oblong to elliptic, c. 2.5 mm long, turgid, sparingly mottled, peripherally ridged; aril depressed, approximately equalling seed length.
Grows in a variety of habitats but commonly in sand or clayey sand, often near granite outcrops, in woodland, mallee communities, shrubland or heath.
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