Large climber to 10m, scandent shrub or rarely a tree branchlets armed with recurved pirckles to 3mm long, bipinnate leaves, 15-33 pairs leaflets, puberulous and prickly beneath. Terminal hairy panicles with floral bracts, yellow flowers, calyx to 2mm with teeth to 0.5mm, corolla to 2.5mm with lobes to 0.5mm, brown pod 180mm x 31mm
Pygmies use it for water.