Plants erect annual herbs or subshrubs up to 1 m tall; stems puberulous to pubescent. Leaves petiolate; petioles 0.5-2.5(-4) cm long; blades ovate to narrowly elliptic, 1.5-5 cm long, 0.7-3.3 cm wide, lower surfaces tomentose, upper surfaces sparsely pubescent, bases rounded to somewhat cordate, margins dentate, tips acute to rounded. Inflorescences of solitary or clusters of flowers; pedicels 3-22 mm long; calyces 4-6 mm long, enclosing the ripe mericarps; petals 4-6 mm long, white to yellow; mericarps 5, about 3 mm long, and with a pair of 1-2 mm long, puberulous awns, sides striate, and the basal part of the back thin and papery.
Sida alba grows on city plains, in groundwater forests on alluvial soils, and as a weed at 10-520 m. The Flora of Somalia reports it from regions C, S2 and S3 but it has been collected on the Uiversity of Hargeisa campus. The identification needs verification. The Flora also states that the species is known from Ethiopia, Djibouti, and from tripical Africa, Djibouti as well as Tropical America.