Rounded shrubs or small trees to 4 m tall and with a number of stems; branchlets terete, glabrous, apically resinous; bark bright red and exfoliating in narrow curly strips like red mulga <I>A. cyperophylla</I>. 

<P>Phyllodes variable, linear to narrow-elliptic to narrow oblanceolate, 2.5-10 cm long, 2-8 mm wide, flat slightly thickened, rather rigid, slightly curved, usually with inconspicuous hairs between the veins (hairs denser on young phyllodes), resinous, finely multistriate, veins more or less uniform, contracted to short acute hard brown points; glands indistinct on upper margin. 

<P>Inflorescences axillary 1 or 2; peduncles 8-20 mm long as long or longer than flower-heads; flower-heads globular to cylindrical 6-25 mm long, dense. Flowers 5-merous. 

<P>Legumes linear, slightly curved to 9 cm long, 2-6 mm wide, cartilaginous to hard and brittle, light grey-brown, minutely resinous, flat, barely raised over seeds, not constricted between seeds. Seeds longitudinal in legume oblongoid-ellipsoid 2-4.5 mm long, 1-2.5 mm wide, black or brown, often mottled, shiny; funicle flattened and expanded into thickened creamy white aril.