Usually a shrub, sometimes a small tree 3-4 m in height. Bark dark grey. Branches smooth or hairy, often armed with paired slender straight spines. Leaves opposite, spaced along new growth at the ends of the stems or clustered on dwarf spur-branchlets, ovate to elliptic, 5-30 x 4-20 mm, dark green above, paler below, soft-textured, with short soft hairs along the veins; midrib and lateral veins distinct, domatia occasional or absent, apex tapering acutely to broadly; base rounded; margin fringed with hairs; petiole about 1-3 mm long; stipules triangular, hairy. Flowers small, cream to greenish, corolla about 4 mm long, constricted just below the mouth, solitary or in pairs, on a long slender stalk (Oct - Feb). Fruit ovoid, asymmetric, with the stalk on 1 side or squarish, about 13 mm long, slightly tapering to the base, 2-lobed at the apex, dark brown to blackish and slightly wrinkled, resembling goat or sheep droppings (Feb - May).

Canthium ciliatum flowers & leaves © G. Nichols