The shrub typically grows to a height of and is glabrous. It has flattened to angular branchlets that are a maroon-brown colour but become grey as they age with prominent ribbing and often with a powdery white coating. Like most species of Acacia it has phyllodes rather than true leaves. The coriaceous, stiff, green phyllodes have a narrowly oblong shape that can be narrowly ovate-elliptic with a length of and a width of and have three prominent main longitudinal nerves. It blooms between February and November producing golden flowers.