The phyllodes are narrow, rigid, terete or angled, straight or slightly curved, 15 to 30 mm (0.59 to 1.18 in) long and terminate with a sharp point.

It has cream or pale yellow flowers that are spherical shaped clusters appearing in the phyllode axils on a peduncle 20 mm (0.79 in) long.

[3][4][5] Acacia genistifolia was first formally described in 1822 by Johann Heinrich Friedrich Link and the description was published in Enumeratio Plantarum Horti Botanici Regii Berolinensis Altera.

[3] The plants range extends from around Dubbo in the north down through the Australian Capital Territory to the Grampians in Victoria.

It grows in many different types of soils at an altitude of less than 1,000 m (3,300 ft) as a part of dry sclerophyll forest or heathland communities.