It is a trailing or twining shrub or climber with trifoliate leaves and black and yellow-orange flowers.

Flowering occurs from July to November and the fruit is a pod 46–70 mm (1.8–2.8 in) long.

[2][3][4][5] Kennedia nigricans was first formally described in 1835 by John Lindley in Edwards's Botanical Register, where it was also labelled as "Dingy-flowered Kennedya".

[8] Black kennedia grows on coastal dunes, on creek margins and on flats in the Esperance Plains, Jarrah Forest and Swan Coastal Plain biogeographic regions of south-western Western Australia.

This cultivar was selected from a batch of seedlings in 1983 and has a pale colouration instead of the yellow, which appears almost white.