[1] The shrub typically grows to a height of 2 m (6 ft 7 in) has a spreading, open habit, with scabrous and tuberculate branchlets that have minute hairs.

[2] The species was first formally described by the botanist James Edward Smith in 1795 as Mimosa hispidula in the work A Specimen of the Botany of New Holland .

It was then described as Acacia hispidula by Carl Ludwig Willdenow in 1806 as part of the work Species Plantarum.

[1] The specific epithet is derived from Latin and is in reference to the hairy nature of the branchlets and phyllode margins having short hairs or tubercles.

[1] It has a disjunct distribution and is found around the Sydney area in New South Wales and further north from Coffs Harbour and inland to Torrington to the border with Queensland from the north as far as Crows Nest and Brisbane where it is a part of Eucalyptus woodland communities growing in shallow soils over granite and sandstone.