There is no dark, shining patch on the dorsal surface of the abdomen, a fact which distinguishes it from the otherwise similar thistle aphid (Brachycaudus cardui).

The cauda (tail-like elongation) is bluntly rounded, the legs are pale except for the extremities, and the cornicles are pale-coloured, short and flanged.

[7] Brachycaudus helichrysi overwinters as fertilised eggs which hatch during the winter or early spring, before the plum and damson trees on which they are laid come into leaf.

Here sexual forms develop, mating takes place and eggs are laid on twigs and spurs of the plum and damson trees.

It forms dense colonies on the underside of the leaves of the primary host causing curling,[4] twisting and distortion of the foliage, the shedding of flowers and the dropping of young fruit.