This is a single- or multi-stemmed, small tree 3-10 m high, with a short, often curved trunk, and a spreading, irregular canopy. The long, slender branches hang low down, giving the tree a willow-like appearance. It grows in higher rainfall regions. The bark on the main stem is grey to dark grey or brownish grey and smooth becoming scaly and rough with age.

The simple leaves have sharp, twisted tips, hence the specific epithet; they are shiny yellow-green in colour, alternate, opposite or in whorls of three at the nodes, with blades narrowly to broadly elliptic, oblong or broadly obovate. The base is roundish in outline. Young leaves are sticky.

Flowers occur in axils on new shoots, 3-4 on each shoot. Petals are yellow to creamy green and strongly scented. It flowers in spring and summer, from September to February. The fruit is four-winged, 20-30 x 15-25 mm, almost round to ovoid, with wings up to 7 mm wide, glutinous when young, yellowish-green, often tinged with red. It has a single seed in the centre. It fruits in late summer to autumn, from January to May. Fruits often stay on the tree until the next flowers appear in August.

Subspecies leutweinii from Namibia differs in having hairier leaves. It occurs mainly in Mopane veld.