It is a small perennial with clusters of soft and drooping leaves that divide into blue-green leaflets up to 0.7 m (2 ft 4 in) long.

[2][3] It produces a striking upright flowering stem up to 1 m (3 ft 3 in) tall.

[4] If damaged, it will bleed a sticky white latex fluid.

[5] Aciphylla dieffenbachii is named after Johann Karl Ernest Dieffenbach, a German physician, geologist and naturalist.

Dieffenbach worked for the New Zealand Company and travelled widely across the country.