Shrub or fastigiate tree to 7 m high, multistemmed. Bark corrugated, fissured, dark grey. Branchlets angular, pinkish to dull purplish red, sometimes mealy, glabrous, often resinous. Phyllodes linear, flat, ± straight to shallowly incurved, 5–14 (–21) cm long, 1.5–4 (–6.5) mm wide, coriaceous, scurfy, glabrous; minor veins c. 8 per mm, inconspicuous, parallel, not anastomosing; midvein ± evident; gland 1, rudimentary, basal, to 1.5 mm above pulvinus. Inflorescences short racemes 1–20 mm long. Spikes 1.2–2 (–2.8) cm long, golden. Flowers 5-merous; calyx 0.5–1.1 mm long, dissected to ¼ of length, sparsely hairy at base and apex; corolla 1.2–1.8 mm long, ± glabrous; ovary glabrous or with apical hairs. Pods linear, raised over seeds, 6–8 cm long, wrinkled, glabrous. Seeds longitudinal, oblong-elliptic, 4–4.5 mm long, dark brownish black; pleurogram slightly paler, open, without halo; areole brownish black.
Grows in sandy, often alluvial soils, usually in open eucalypt forests and woodlands often dominated by Callitris, and frequently in disturbed areas.
Home