The erect spreading shrub typically grows to a height of 1.5 to 3 metres (5 to 10 ft)[1] and has terete and glabrous slightly ribbed branchlets.

The thick, pungent and rigid grey-green phyllodes are ascending to erect and straight to slightly curved with a length of 5 to 24 cm (2.0 to 9.4 in) and a diameter of 1.5 to 1.8 mm (0.059 to 0.071 in) and have eight immersed yellowish nerves.

[1] The specific epithet, gilesiana, honours William Ernest Powell Giles (explorer and botanical collector).

[3] It is often situated on sand dunes or sandplains growing in red sandy soils.

[1] The range of the species extends from the Gibson Desert in the north west and the Great Victoria Desert in the south west from around Neale Junction extending eastward to Maralinga in South Australia where it is found as a part of low open woodland and tall shrubland communities often in association with mulga and spinifex.