The rudimentary phyllodes appear as small continuous terete horn-like projections along the branchlets that are up to around 1 mm (0.039 in) in length.

[2] The species was first formally described by the botanist Bruce Maslin in 1995 as part of the work Acacia Miscellany Taxonomy of some Western Australian phyllocladinous and aphyllodinous taxa (Leguminosae: Mimosoideae).

The species as reclassified as Racosperma cerastes in 2003 by Leslie Pedley but returned to the genus Acacia in 2006.

[3] It is found in a small area between Perenjori, Westonia and Yalgoo where it grows in skeletal rocky soils over ironstone on hillslopes.

The type specimen was collected by the botanist Charles Austin Gardner in 1952 from the Mount Gibson area.