It is a spreading to erect shrub with hairy, slightly sticky branchlets, oblong to narrow elliptic leaves and corymbs of up to three hundred flower heads.

Cassinia rugata is a spreading to erect shrub that typically grows to a height of up to 3 m (9.8 ft) with its branchlets densely covered with cottony white hairs.

[2][3][4] Cassinia rugata was first formally described in 1990 by Neville Grant Walsh in the journal Muelleria from specimens collected near Heathmere in 1988.

[5][6] The specific epithet (rugata) means "folded or wrinkled", referring to the inner involucral bracts.

[6] Cassinia rugata grows in swamps and on the edge of rivers in south-eastern South Australia, south-western Victoria and northern Tasmania.