Cassia tora is an annual, erect, robust herb, reaching a height of 1 to 2 meters. It has even-pinnate compound leaves, 4 to 8 centimeters long, with no glands on the petiole. Each pair of leaflets on the rachis bears a club-shaped gland. There are 3 pairs of leaflets, which are papery, obcordate or obovate-oblong, measuring 2 to 6 centimeters in length and 1.5 to 2.5 centimeters in width. The leaf tips are blunt with a small point, and the base is gradually narrowing and oblique. Both surfaces are covered with soft hairs. The leaflet stalks are 1.5 to 2 millimeters long, with linear stipules that are pubescent and fall off early. The flowers bloom in midsummer, axillary, usually in pairs. The peduncle is 6 to 10 millimeters long, and the pedicel is 1 to 1.5 centimeters long, filamentous. There are 5 sepals, membranous, fused at the base into a short tube, externally pubescent, about 8 millimeters long. The 5 petals are yellow, with the lower two slightly longer. There are 7 fertile stamens. The ovary is sessile and covered with white soft hairs. The pod is slender, nearly linear, with four straight ridges, tapering at both ends, up to 5 centimeters long and 3 to 4 millimeters wide. The seeds are rhombic and glossy.