Glaucous shrub or tree 2–15 m high. Bark of trunk pruinose when young, later with fibrous grey or mottled grey-brown stocking; upper trunks and branches whitish. Branchlets terete or slightly angular towards apices, yellowish grey, later orange or brown, glabrous or rarely pubescent. Phyllodes elliptic to very narrowly elliptic, narrowly lanceolate to lanceolate, falcate to subfalcate, (6–) 10–25 cm long, (7–) 13–70 mm wide (juvenile phyllodes sometimes broader), thinly to thickly coriaceous, with 3 or 4 longitudinal main veins and 4 or 5 subprominent veins (the upper veins not reaching apex, the lower veins confluent with margin near base);minor veins ±parallel, 5–9 per mm, ±anastomosing; gland 1, basal. Spikes 2–6.5 cm long, yellow to light golden. Flowers mostly 5-merous; calyx 0.6–1.2 mm long, deeply dissected, persistent; calyx lobes concave and incurved, thick, silky-pubescent; corolla 1–1.6 mm long, glabrous or slightly pubescent; ovary pubescent. Pods linear to cultrate, sometimes slightly to moderately constricted between and raised over the seeds, straight to curved and sometimes twisted, ±terete to compressed, 2.5–13 (–16) cm long, (3–) 5–11 mm wide, subwoody, longitudinally wrinkled or grooved, glabrous or slightly hairy. Seeds oblique, elliptic-oblong or pyriform, 4–9 mm long, dark brown to black; funicle-aril twice-folded.
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A medium sized shrub 3-8 m tall. It spreads 2-4 m across. The branches have white hairs. The bark can be silvery when young and turns red with age. The leaves (phyllodes) are large and light green. They are 10-15 (-23) cm long by 4-6 cm wide. They are thick and curved and covered with a bluish bloom and white silky hairs. There are veins running along the leaf. The flower heads are bright yellow and rod like. They are 2-4 (-7) cm long and 0.7 cm wide. They have a strong scent. The pods are 12-16 cm long by 1-1.5 cm wide. They are twisted and woody. They are round in cross section but raised over the seeds. They are fragile. The seeds are shiny dark brown. They are arranged lengthwise along the pod.
The young pods are steamed and the seeds eaten. (The seeds cause flatulence and bad breath.) The seeds especially the mature seeds may contain some poisonous substance. Their use as food is disputed in some areas. In some areas the mature seeds are pounded into flour mixed with water and eaten as a paste. The gum is eaten.
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