Small to medium trees, usually with a drooping habit. She-oaks either monoecious or dioecious. Small prostrate woody shrubs to medium trees. Young stems and leaves often with stellate hairs. Stipules are present but may be deciduous.
Flowers are regular but are usually inconspicuous, surrounded by conspicuous bracts.
Ovary half inferior to inferior, conspicuous bracts surround inconspicuous flowers. Leaves with stipules. Some with bipinnate leaves but most have phyllodes. Flowers are small, yellow, actinomorphic and arranged in heads or spikes with a mass of conspicuous yellow anthers. Fruit a legume.