It has simple and pinnate leaves with two or three leaflets and panicles of small white flowers.

Bosistoa medicinalis is a tree that typically grows to a height of bout 20 m (66 ft) high and has hard bark.

[3][4][5] Northern towra was first formally described in 1866 by Ferdinand von Mueller who gave it the name Pagetia medicinalis and published the description in Fragmenta phytographiae Australiae.

[6][7] In 1977, Thomas Gordon Hartley changed the name to Bosistoa medicinalis in the Journal of the Arnold Arboretum.

[3][5] This species is listed as of "least concern" under the Queensland Government Nature Conservation Act 1992.