Stiff, intricate, spreading shrub, 0.3–2 m high; branchlets short, straight, rigid, patent to erect, spinescent, glabrous or pubescent. Phyllodes more or less erect, cuneate to obtriangular with upper apical angle obtuse and lower angle minutely mucronate, sometimes almost linear and then often more or less uncinate, semi-terete when very narrow, 0.3–0.8 cm long, 0.6–3 mm wide, glabrous or pubescent, green or rarely glaucous; veins divergent. Peduncles 1 per node, 5–15 mm long, glabrous, basal bract 1, becoming cleft; heads globular, 4–5 mm diam., 15–30-flowered, golden. Flowers 5-merous; sepals united; petals 1-veined. Pods twisted or coiled, to 1–2 cm long (unexpanded), 2–3 mm wide, thinly coriaceous, slightly constricted between seeds, glabrous, dark brown to black; seeds longitudinal, elliptic, c. 2 mm long, mottled, light brown, aril oblique and thick. Flowers Jul.–Oct.