[2] The openly branched spreading tree or shrub typically grows to a height of 5 to 15 metres (16 to 49 ft) with a well developed canopy.

It has hard grey glossy bark that is occasionally fissured[3] with pruinose orange to yellow branchlets.

[3] A. tumida has a range that extends from the Kimberley, Pilbara and north eastern Goldfields regions of Western Australia including much of the Great Sandy Desert.

[3] There are four recognised varieties of Acacia tumida: Indigenous Australians used the trunk of young trees to fashion spears and boomerangs.

Fully ripened black seeds were ground into flour mixed with water and consumed as a paste or cooked and eaten as a damper.