A spiny, deciduous shrub or small tree that grows up to 7 metres high. The branches are spreading with acacia-like leaves. It often forms impenetrable, thorny, dense thickets which are difficult to eradicate. The lateral shoots form strong spines. Leaves are compound (bi-pinnate) with numerous minute leaflets. Attractive, drooping, pendulous, yellow and pink fluffy flower clusters appear in spring and summer. Florets toward the tip of the spike are yellow and fertile, while those towards the stalk are mauve or pink and infertile. Flowers are followed by oddly contorted, untidy, sickle-shaped woody pods borne in clusters. The pods do not split open at maturity. Dichrostachys cinerea represents a species complex that has been divided into several varieties and subspecies, but the distinction between these taxa is not always clear.