Tree 3–30 m tall; bark on trunk yellowish, becoming powdery; branchlets glabrous, outer layer soon flaking off to expose greenish-yellow inner layer. Stipular spines in pairs, 1–8.5 cm long. Leaves glabrous or almost so; pinnae (1–)3–6(–8) pairs; leaflets 8–17 pairs, 2.5–6.5 x 0.75–1.75 mm. Flowers yellow, white or purplish (colour not known in Somalia) in heads; peduncles 0.8–2.9 cm long, with involucel basal or in the lower half. Calyx 1–1.7 mm long. Corolla 2.2–3.5 mm long. Pods straight or slightly curved, brown, 3–13.5 x 0.7–1.4 cm, often irregularly constricted between some of the seeds, indehiscent, valves thin, reticulate-veined, glabrous or almost so.
