Bosistoa pentacocca is a tree that typically grows to a height of about 18 m (59 ft).

The flowers are 50–330 mm (2.0–13.0 in) long and arranged in panicles in leaf axils or on the ends of branchlets.

[2][3] Ferny-leaf bosistoa was first formally described in1862 by Ferdinand von Mueller who gave it the name Euodia pentacocca and published the description in Fragmenta phytographiae Australiae.

[4][5] In 1873, Henri Ernest Baillon changed the name to Bosistoa pentacocca in his book Histoire des Plantes.

[6][7] In 2013, Paul Irwin Forster describe two subspecies and the names have been accepted by the Australian Plant Census: Bosistoa pentacocca grows along streams in rainforest, often dry rainforest and occurs between Bowen in eastern-central Queensland and the Clarence River in north-eastern New South Wales.