This locust is encountered as thickets and patches at elevations of from 4,000 to 8,500 feet in the southwestern United States. This shrub or small tree can reach heights of 15 feet or more. A colonizer, the species can enter disturbed sites rapidly. In its native range, it prefers moister sites such as north slopes. It appears equally on basalt and limestone soils and appears to tolerate alkali clay soils.
Branches have stipular spines.
Leaves are grayish with 9 to 15 elliptic to elliptic-lanceolate leaflets, 0.25 to 1.25 inches long. Flowers are reported to range from white, pale pink, rose, purplish pink, purple, to deep red. Flowers are about 0.5 inches long, in dense, many flowered racemes. Fruit pods are 2 to 4 inches long. Ames 24469 is a population started from seed obtained from the USDA-ARS National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research in Peoria, Illinois.