The ascending to erect green phyllodes are often shallowly incurved and have five prominently raised nerves.

The dark red-brown linear seed pods that form after flowering reach a length of up to 8 cm (3.1 in) and a width of 3 to 4 mm (0.12 to 0.16 in).

[3] The species was first formally described by the botanist George Bentham in 1855 as part of the work Plantae Muellerianae: Mimoseae as published in Linnaea: ein Journal für die Botanik in ihrem ganzen Umfange, oder Beiträge zur Pflanzenkunde.

It was reclassified as Racosperma gonophyllum in 2003 by Leslie Pedley then transferred back to the genus Acacia in 2006.

[4] It is native to an area along the south coast in the Goldfields-Esperance and Great Southern regions of Western Australia from around the Stirling Ranges in the north to Albany in the west to around Israelite Bay in the east where it is found on plains, flats and sand dunes growing in gravelly sandy lateritic or quartzitic soils[2] usually as a part of heath, mallee or open Eucalyptus woodland communities.