Rigid, intricate, spreading shrub, commonly 0.3–1 m high, sometimes forming prostrate mats or reaching 2 m high, glabrous. Branchlets short, patent, divaricate, whitish scurfy, finely ribbed, spinose, often aphyllous. New shoots red to red-brown. Phyllodes mostly ascending to erect, obliquely oblong to oblong-elliptic or oblong-oblanceolate, 5–12 mm long, 2–4 mm wide, acute to obtuse, excentrically mucronate, grey-green to glaucous, sometimes whitish scurfy; midrib ±obscure; lateral veins absent or obscure. Inflorescences rudimentary racemes with axes more than 0.5 mm long; peduncles 4–12 mm long, often red to red-brown; heads globular, 12–22-flowered, golden; bracteoles c. 0.5 mm long. Flowers 5-merous, sometimes 4-merous; sepals united into a very short cup. Pods oblong to narrowly oblong, slightly biconvex, straight, usually 1–3 cm long and 7–10 mm wide, usually crustaceous, without internal partitions. Seeds oblique, 3.5–4 mm long, oblong-ovate to widely elliptic, one side often flattened, shiny, dark brown; aril subterminal.
Grows in clay, sandy clay, sand, laterite, gravel and loam, in open eucalypt woodland, mallee woodland and sandplain scrub, on hills and on flatlands.
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