It is an erect shrub with crowded elliptical leaves, spikes of small, tube-shaped, greenish-white flowers, and deep scarlet drupes.

[2] This species was first formally described in 1913 by Karel Domin who gave it the name Monotoca baileyana in Repertorium Specierum Novarum Regni Vegetabilis from a specimen collected on Mount Bartle Frere by Frederick Manson Bailey.

[3][4] In 1980, Jocelyn Marie Powell transferred the species to the genus Acrotriche as A. baileyana, in the journal Telopea.

Domin noted that he named "this very interesting plant, growing on the highest mountains in tropical Australia" in honour of F.M.

[4] This species grows is known from the Russell River, Mount Bartle Frere and Walshs Pyramid in far north Queensland.