This much-branched shrub or small tree is 1-5 m high, usually heavily armed with large, sharp, brown, straight to recurved, broad-based and laterally compressed prickles up to 15 mm long. Young branches are covered with a grey or pale brown tomentum, becoming glabrous and dark brown with age. Leaves are shortly petiolate, ovate, up to 150 × 130 mm, usually deeply 5-7-lobed, with the upper surface green glabrescent, the lower surface thickly stellately whitish tomentose, more or less prickly on the midrib on both surfaces. The inflorescence is a few to 10-flowered racemose cyme with only the proximal flowers female-fertile. The calyx is enlarged and prickly in fruit. The corolla is white to pale violet, rotate-stellate, about 20 mm in diameter. The fruit is a smooth, globose berry, often with a warty surface, up to 60 mm in diameter, green ripening to yellow. Seeds 4 × 3 mm in size. Chromosome number: 2n = 24.

The lobed discolorous leaves, the mostly recurved prickles and the large yellow fruit make this plant unique among the African species of Solanum. It could perhaps be confused with S. lichtensteinii (= S. incanum in the broad sense), but that small shrub is unarmed or has small prickles.

The flowering time is from September to July, peaking in November and March. The fruiting time is from April to January, peaking in June and November.