Annual herb, erect with ascending branches, up to 40 cm high; indumentum of curved and straight hairs. Leaves linear or oblanceolate, 7–74 mm long, 1–8 mm wide; apex acute, obtuse or rounded, mucro c. 0.4 mm long; petiole 0–1 mm long. Inflorescence supra-axillary, a raceme to 35 mm long, not exceeding the leaves. Pedicel ± lacking. Alae antrorse to perpendicular in fruit (position), herbaceous, ovate, dimidiate, 6.4–9.8 mm long, 3.3–4.5 mm wide, densely villous with straight hairs. Corolla purple; floral appendages horned, offset to one side of keel; upper petal claw 1.5–2.0 mm wide. Stamens terminate at stigma, monadelphous; staminal flap not visible, to c. 0.05 mm wide. Style sinuous, terete, cleft into a short stalk perpendicular to main axis with a globular stigma, and longer stalk persistent past stigma and sterile. Capsule antrorse to perpendicular, ± aligned with alae, lacking wing, ± symmetrical, widely ovate, oblong to widely obovate, 4.5–6.1 mm long, 3.5–4.5 mm wide; lobe apices rounded and separated. Seed ovoid–obloid, 4.0–4.6 mm long, 1.5–2.0 mm wide, with indumentum of fine white and ferruginous hairs. Aril head hooked to helmet-shaped, 0.6–1.0 mm long, white or brown and white, with a tuft of hairs. Aril appendages 3, oblongtolinear, 0.20–0.65 mm long.
Grows in woodlands, in sandy soils often adjacent to creek lines. Predominantly occurs in red sand on flats in open woodlands, although also recorded in sandy clay loam adjacent to gullies, in riparian situations and on rocky slopes.