An erect shrub up to 1.5 m tall, resprouter; young branches reddish brown with silvery sericeous covering. Leaves arranged in tight clusters of up to 12-15 leaflets. Leaflets 12-15 mm long, piniform, straight or slightly curved, with appressed silvery sericeous pubescence. Inflorescences unifloral, on lateral short shoots, occasional along each branchlet. Flowers 10 mm long, dark yellow, hidden among leaves; pedicel absent or < 1 mm long, tomentose; bract 4 mm long, linear, pubescent; bracteoles 3 mm long, filiform. Calyx campanulate, appressed villous; lobes 2.6-2.8 mm long, broadly triangular, swollen, stiff, apex rigid; tube 3 mm long, longer than lobes, carinal tooth larger than other teeth. Standard blade 6 x 5 mm, broadly ovate, yellow ageing orange, with russet-coloured triangular nectar patch, margin ciliate, emarginate, back hairy throughout, upper front apical part also hairy, apex large and sharply recurved, rigid; claw 2 mm, curved. Wing blades 4.5 x 1.0-1.2 mm, glabrous except for hairy tips, lower surface strongly inrolled and held tight up against standard petal; petal sculpturing comprises 2-3 indistinct rows of up to 40-50 mostly transcostal lamellae and some costal pockets over two thirds of the upper outer surface; claw 2 mm, recurved. Keel petals 4.0 x 4.2 mm, blades fused, lunate, obtuse, blade glabrous, scarcely auriculate, upper margin slightly convex, lower convex, pocketed; claw 2 mm long, flattish. Androecium 6.5 mm long with 5 basifixed and 5 dorsifixed, versatile anthers. Pistil 6 mm long; ovary 2 mm long, long-haired on ovary, ovules 2; style almost straight, glabrous. Fruits 9 x 6 mm, shaggy, style persistent, obliquely ovate; seeds unknown. Flowering is atypical for Aspalathus and takes place from February to July which is well outside the general flowering season of the genus, which occurs between August and December.
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