The dark green, needle-like leaves of Phylica ericoides ascend on the pale cream upper stems, spaced sufficiently for some stem to be visible below the stem-tip flowerhead clusters. The leaves become 5 mm to 8 mm long. The small rounded flowerheads have deeply hooded petals.

The plant was seen in March at the Harold Porter National Botanical Garden. While some plants exceed 90 cm, there are smaller ones seen at higher altitudes among the fynbos and growing coarser near the sea (Manning, 2007; Bean and Johns, 2005).