It is an open-branched shrub, often trailing between other plants, has strap-like leaves and pink to purple-red, four-petalled flowers in winter and autumn.

[2][3][4] Boronia crenulata was first formally described in 1807 by James Edward Smith and the description was published in Transactions of the Linnean Society of London.

[5][6] The specific epithet (crenulata) is derived from the Latin word crena meaning "a notch or rounded projection"[7] referring to the teeth on the leaf margins.

[3] In 1998, Paul G. Wilson described four subspecies and two varieties in the journal Nuytsia and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:[8] This boronia occurs in a broad area of the south-west of Western Australia in the Avon Wheatbelt, Esperance Plains, Geraldton Sandplains, Jarrah Forest, Mallee, Swan Coastal Plain and Warren biogeographic regions.

It grows in a range of soils, from clay to limestone and from swampy coastal areas to the margins of salt lakes and rocky outcrops.