Desert Date is a slow-growing evergreen tree. The branches are thorny. The dark green compound leaves are made up of two leathery leaflets which are variable in size and shape. Leaf-stalk is channeled, with a short rachis. Leaflets are entire, Greenish. Stalkless flowers are borne in few-flowered fascicles.

Flower buds are ovoid and velvety. Individual flowers are generally greenish-yellow. Flower-stalks are densely greyish, velvety. Fruit is ellipsoid, long, green. The ripe fruit is brown or pale brown with a brittle coat enclosing a brown or brown-green sticky pulp and a hard stone seed. The bark is purgative and vermifuge. An infusion of the bark is used to treat heartburn. The bark is used to deworm cattle in Rajasthan. Wood gum, mixed with maize meal porridge, is used to treat chest pains.