Schwantesia herrei plants seldom measure more than 10 cm across. These plants are at home in some of the lowest rainfall conditions found in South Africa. The blue-green leaves, here a little stressed and turning pink with wrinkles at the end of another hot summer, are triangular in cross-section with whitish ridges on the margins and keels. Leaf tips are finely pointed, leaf bodies variably elongated and curved in asymmetric shapes.

Flowers are yellow-golden, about 4 cm in diameter. Five fleshy, leaf-like sepals are partly visible below the corolla. The petals are oblong with rounded tips; slightly more in number than would complete one single whorl. An ample cluster of yellow anthered stamens occupy the flower centre, obscuring the five stigmas. The flowers only open shortly before sunset. Flowering happens in autumn, before the rainy season. This flower was seen late in April.

The fruit capsule to follow has five locules with covering membranes; the seeds tiny and shiny (Williamson, 2010; iSpot; Smith, et al, 1998).