Shrub, often with many stems, or a tree to 7 m high; crown rounded or flattened and spreading. Bark pale to dark yellowish- or greyish-brown, rough, the outer layer papery and flaking off; young branchlets pale yellowish or grey to greyish-brown, puberulous to pubescent, with few to many small reddish glands intermixed. Stipules not spinescent, in pairs, linear, 2-4,5 X 0,2-0,8 mm. soon deciduous. Prickles in pairs below the nodes, usually strongly recurved, broad-based, grey-brown to reddish-brown or purplish, up to 1 cm long. Leaves: petiole 0,3-1(1,3) cm long, adaxial gland variable in position, elliptic or discoid, 0,8-2,2 X 0,4-1,1 mm, reddish-brown to black; rhachis (0,7)1,8-5,6(7,5) cm long, puberulous to densely pubescent, with few small reddish glands intermixed, without a conspicuous gland at the junction of any of the pinnae pairs; pinnae (4)8-16(20) pairs; rhachillae 0,7-2,9 cm long, puberulous to densely pubescent; leaflets 9-28(35) pairs per pinna, 2-5(6,5) X 0,5-1,2(1,6) mm, linear-oblong, straight or almost so, apex rounded to obtuse or subacute, veins often prominent beneath at first but becoming obscure with age, glabrous or sparingly to densely appres-sed-pubescent below, margins usually with spreading cilia. Inflorescences spicate, solitary or paired, sometimes forming a terminal panicle. Flowers yellowish-white, sessile; spikes (1,8)2,6-5,4(6,5) cm long; peduncles 0,6-2,4 cm long, puberulous to densely pubescent. Calyx often olive-green, puberuÂlous to densely pubescent, sometimes sub-glabrous, tube 1,3-2,5 mm long, lobes 0,6-1,2 mm long. Corolla glabrous or slightly puberulous, especially towards the apices of the lobes, tube up to 3,2 mm long, lobes up to 1,4 mm long. Stamen-filaments free, up to 9 mm long; anthers 0,2-0,25 mm across, with a deciduous apical gland. Ovary 0,7-1,5 mm long, glabrous or puberulous, stipitate. Pods fawn to dark brown, 4-13,5 X 1,1-2(2,3) cm, linear-oblong, straight, rounded to acute or sometimes rostrate apically, longitudinally dehiscent, venose, coriaceous, puberulous to subglabrous, with numerous small reddish glands. Seeds olive-brown, subcircular, 8-12,5 x 8-12 mm, compressed; areole 1-4 x 1-3 mm, horseÂshoe shaped.
