The narrow Pentzia incana leaf lobes are variously curved and variable in length. They are round-tipped and hair-covered. Two or three of them veer apart at a stem-tip, often about equal in size and diverging similarly, not always.

The velvety, whitish stems are longitudinally ridged once they get older and thicker.

This shrub or shrublet, commonly the ankerkaroo, is sometimes also called good Karoo or in Afrikaans skaapkaroo (sheep Karoo) on account of its importance as fodder for sheep, the number one farming endeavour in the Karoo (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015, Manning and Goldblatt, 1997; iNaturalist).