Spreading open shrub 0.7–2 m tall, glabrous. Branchlets terete, prominently striate-ribbed, pruinose. Stipules persistent, 7–10 mm long, indurate, coarsely pungent. Phyllodes elliptic, normally 1.5–4 cm long and 1.5–3 cm wide, undulate, obtuse-mucronate, with coarsely pungent and inflexed mucro, coriaceous, green, with prominent midrib and marginal nerves, penninerved, commonly with a minor nerve subparallel to midrib from near base; gland prominent, 2–4 mm above pulvinus. Inflorescences simple, normally 1 per axil; peduncles 15–25 mm long, often red when young; heads globular, loosely 6–9-flowered, cream to pale yellow; buds large, obtuse. Flowers 4-merous; sepals ¼–⅓ length of corolla, united into a truncate to sinuously lobed calyx. Pods narrowly oblong, wholly or partially spirally twisted, to 6 cm long, 6–8 mm wide, crustaceous to subwoody; margins thick. Seeds longitudinal, elliptic, c. 4 mm long, glossy, brown; funicle dilated at attachment to pod; aril small.
Grows on ridges and hillsides, occasionally near creeks, in rocky or lateritic clay or sandy clay, in open mallee scrub or low woodland.
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