It is a bushy shrub or tree with lance-shaped to linear phyllodes, racemes of bright golden-yellow flowers and more or less leathery to leathery to hard and brittle pods.

It can be found growing in sandy soils in semiarid and Eucalyptus woodland in the region.

The seeds are dull black, 5–7 mm (0.20–0.28 in) long, with a club-shaped aril.

[3][4][2][5][6] Acacia hakeoides was first formally describe in 1842 by George Bentham in the London Journal of Botany from an unpublished description by Allan Cunningham.

[9] Hakea wattle is widespread and common in open scrub, Eucalyptus woodland or mallee in western New South Wales,[3] north-western Victoria,[6] southern coastal areas of South Australia including the Nullarbor region,[4] and the Coolgardie, Hampton, Mallee and Nullarbor bioregions of southern Western Australia.