Small bright yellow flowers are aggregated in prominent spikes 3-6 cm long. Narrow, hairless pods, 3-6 can long, are coiled in dense clusters and contain shiny black seeds, each with a yellow aril at the base. Flowering is heavy and precocious, and abundant crops of mature seeds may be formed within two years of planting. It commonly forms a spreading shrub to 5 m in height with many ascending branches from just above ground level. Occasionally it grows as a small tree up to 8 m in height.
Natural populations occur in a wide range of tropical climates.
In semiarid areas mean annual rainfall can be as low as 300 mm and in these conditions it is confined to seasonally dry stream banks. Throughout much of its natural distribution annual rainfall is 600-1200 mm with most rain concentrated in four months. Most of the distribution is frost-free, but up to ten frosts each year occur at some inland sites. In extremely dry areas when annual rainfall is less dm 250-300 mm seedlings can survive for 2 to 3 years but then die. In the island environment of Cape Verde, however, where low rainfall is counterbalanced by higher air moisture, cooler temperatures and lower evapotranspiration, A. holosericea has withstood an average annual rainfall of about 200 nun in a 5-year period.