Shrub or tree to 10 m high with a someÂwhat flattened spreading crown. Bark redÂdish-brown to black, rough; young branchlets clothed with dense spreading hairs, the hairs golden at first but turning greyish-white, sometimes becoming glabrescent with age, the epidermis later peeling or flaking off to reveal a rusty-red inner layer. Stipules spinescent, in pairs, 0,5-5,4 cm long, straight or almost so, sparingly to densely pubescent with spreading hairs especially basally, becoming glabrescent with age; other prickles absent. Leaves densely clothed with spreading hairs, at first golden but turning greyish-white, sometimes becoming glabrescent: petiole 0,1-0,5 mm long, adaxial gland present, yellowish to reddish-brown, oval, somewhat flattened, up to 1,5(3) x 1(2) mm; rhachis 2,4-12 cm long, a small gland usually, at the junction of the top 1-3 and bottom 1-6 pinnae pairs, sometimes present between each pinna pair or absent from some; well-developed leaves of mature shoots with 15-44 pinnae pairs (reduced leaves with as few as 8 pinnae pairs are sometimes also present); rhachillae 0,6-2,8 cm long; leaflets 24-48 pairs per pinna, 1,2-2,8 x 0,4-0,9 mm, linear to linear-oblong, apex rounded to acute, margins with conspicuous spreading hairs especially apically. InfloresÂcences capitate, on axillary peduncles, solitary or more usually fascicled, aggregated into a terminal "raceme", each fascicle of heads subtended by young to scarcely developed leaves. Flowers white or cream, sessile; peduncles 0,5-2 cm long, clothed with dense spreading hairs, the hairs golden at first but soon turning greyish-white, eglandular; in-volucel below the middle of the peduncle. Calyx sparingly to densely pubescent towards the apices of the lobes, sometimes a small basal tuft of hairs also present, tube 1,6-2,2 mm long, lobes up to 0,7 mm long. Corolla glabrous apart from the sparingly to densely pubescent lobes, tube 2-2,8 mm long, lobes up to 1,2 mm long. Stamen-filaments free, up to 7 mm long; anthers with a deciduous apical gland. Ovary up to 1,6 mm long, sessile, sparingly to densely pubescent. Pods grey- or reddish-brown to olive, (2,9) 7-10(14) x 1,1-1,8(2,2) cm, linear-oblong, straight or almost so, longitudinally dehisÂcent, flattened, not constricted between the seeds, slightly venose, glabrous to sparingly pubescent. Seeds olive- or reddish-brown, 4,5-8 x 4-7 mm, ellipsoid to suborbicular, scarcely compressed; areole 2,5-4,5 x 1,25-2,8 mm, completely closed.
