Helichrysum foetidum is an erect herb growing to 1 m in height. The vigorous upper stem in picture is well covered in healthy leaves. The pointed, dark green leaves have white midribs and margins; the grey-woolly lower leaf surfaces end in the white margins. Leaf margins are entire, here sporadically undulating.

Note how the lateral veins of the leaves, much fainter than the midrib, ascend towards the leaf tips about halfway and almost parallel between the margins and the midribs (Manning, 2007).