The spreading spiny shrub typically grows to a height of It has striately ribbed branches with a waxywhitecoloured residue between the ribs. It has short, straight and rigid branchlets that are patent to inclined and spinose. Like most species of Acacia it has phyllodes rather than true leaves. The evergreen phyllodes have an obliquely ovate to elliptic shape with a length of and a width of and have a barely prominent midrib with few or no lateral nerves. It produces yellow flowers in August.