Small, spreading trees 7-10 m high, canopy rounded or conical with branches almost to the ground; branchlets angular, pubescent; bark smooth and greenish-brown on young branchlets, blackish and rough on main trunks, often exudes a gum. <P>Leaves bipinnate, all parts softly pubescent; petiole 1-5 cm long, often with a gland above; rachis 4-15 cm long, with a raised gland at the junction of each pinnae pair and usually with additional glands irregularly spaced between the pinnae pairs; pinnae 8-25; pinnules 30-70 pairs, crowded, 1.5-4 mm long, 0.5-0.75 mm broad, linear-oblong, obtuse. <P>Inflorescences very abundant in long, axillary racemes and panicles; flower-heads globular, pale yellow, fragrant, 20-30-flowered; peduncles golden pubescent, 5-8 mm long; flowers 5-merous. <P>Legumes broad-linear, 5-10 cm long, 5-8 mm broad, almost moniliform, dark grey-brown to blackish, more or less covered with a fine whitish tomentum. Seeds longitudinal in legume, ellipsoid; funicle short, expanded into an oblique aril.