Mundulea sericea subsp. sericea sometimes grows to heights around 5 m. Commonly it remains a shrub of half that size on sunny hillsides and bushveld.

The bark is pale grey, rough, deeply furrowed and corky; more so as the stems grow bigger on old trees.

This bark is used in traditional medicine to treat cases of poisoning. Ironically the bark and seeds also contain a fish poison, called rotenone, used by local fishermen. The substance paralyses the fish that remain edible in spite of the way they were captured (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Schmidt, et al, 2002).