Aegiceras corniculatum is easily distinguished from other mangrove plants by its horn– or crescent–like fruit with a pointed tip. It is locally called kacang–kacang by Malays or saka mata by Brunei Malays in Sabah. The greenish fruit, 2–6 cm long is arranged in a terminal cluster and begins to germinate while attached to the parent plant.

It is a shrub or small tree to 6 m tall with a trunk 15 cm in diameter. The outer bark is dark brown to blackish, smooth to lenticellate and fissured, while the inner bark is yellowish or pale brown. The simple leaves are spirally or alternately arranged. The inflorescences are terminal with umbels of 5–25-flowers. The whitish flower is fragrant and conical in bud; the whitish corolla is densely hairy inside the tube towards the mouth, the lobes are triangular–shaped; the four stamens are attached to the corolla tube at the base and the anthers are dorsifixed.