Prostrate or low-domed shrub to 0.3 m high. Branchlets normally pruinose and glabrous, occasionally hairy. Stipules spinose, 2-6 mm long, sometimes with only bases persisting. Phyllodes ovate or elliptic to narrowly elliptic, 12-25 mm long, 7-15 mm wide, l:w = 1.2-3, coriaceous, glabrous, 1-nerved, finely penninerved; basal gland 0-1 mm above pulvinus, 0.2-0.5 mm long, with sometimes an insignificant gland near mucro. Inflorescences simple, 1 per axil, initiated synchronously with phyllodes on new shoots; peduncles 15-30 mm long, glabrous, with caducous bract near or above middle; heads globular, 10 mm diam. (fresh), densely 60-70-flowered, golden. Flowers 5-merous; sepals free, narrowly spathulate. Pods curved, rounded over seeds, to 8 cm long, 10-18 mm wide, chartaceous, light brown or yellow-brown, glabrous. Seeds transverse to oblique, globose to broadly elliptic, 5-6 mm long, slightly shiny, dark brown, frequently pale-coloured near centre; aril narrow.
Grows in sand over clay or limestone, on dunes and associated flats in scrub or heath, commonly with Triodia sp.