Plants perennial herbs up to 1 m tall; all parts densely pubescent and and also with short, curled, galndular hairs and numerous long, simple hairs. Leaves petioleate; petioles 1-6.5 cm long; blades ovate to suborbicular, up to 10 cm long and 9 cm wide, bases cordate, margins sharply dentate, tips acuminate to acute. Flowers axillary; pedicels 1.5-4.5 cm long; calyces 8-12(-15) mm long, densely pilose; petals 10-20 mm long, yellow to orange; staminal columns with stellate hairs distally and running down to the sinuses between the petals, otherwise glabrous. Mericarps about 20-25, 7-12 mm long, 4-7 mm wide,; seeds (1-)3 per meicarp, dorsal corner with a small tooth or awn up to 1 mm long, often remaining attached to the receptacles, about 2-5 mm long,with simple hairs on distinct papillae.
Abutilon graveolens grows in Acacia-Commiphora bushland or Acacia woodland at 800-1500 m. It is known from regions of N1 and N3 of the Flora of Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Arabia through to India. In the Flora, Thulin commented that it was probably more widespread in Somaliland and Somalia than recorded. .