It is shrub that forms suckers and has hairy new growth, wavy, oblong to elliptic leaves with rounded lobes on the edges, and groups of 3 to 8 white and cream-coloured to pale green flowers.

[2][3] This species was first formally described in 2005 by Gordon Guymer who gave it the name Commersonia pearnii in the journal Austrobaileya from specimens collected by Paul Irwin Forster near Charlevue Lookout in the Blackdown Tableland National Park in 2005.

[4] In 2011, Carolyn Wilkins and Barbara Whitlock transferred the species to Androcalva as A. pearnii in Australian Systematic Botany.

[5] The specific epithet (pearnii) honours Professor John Pearn.

[3] Androcalva pearnii grows in open forest on the Blackdown Tableland in eastern Queensland.