It is an erect shrub with hairy foliage, linear leaves, and large numbers of greenish-white heads of flowers arranged in dense corymbs.

Cassinia scabrida is an erect shrub that typically grows to a height of up to 2 m (6 ft 7 in), its branches covered with cottony and glandular hairs.

Flowering occurs from November to February and the achenes are 1.0–1.2 mm (0.039–0.047 in) long, usually lacking a pappus.

[2] Cassinia scabrida was first formally described in 2004 by Anthony Edward Orchard in Australian Systematic Botany from specimens collected near Corryong in 2004.

[4] Rough cassinia grows in the shrubby understorey of forests, near granite outcrops in mountain areas of north-eastern Victoria.