It is a slender or straggling shrub with simple or trifoliate leaves and pink and white four-petalled flowers.

[2][3] This species was first formally described in 1863 by Ferdinand von Mueller who gave it the name Boronia baeckeacea in Fragmenta phytographiae Australiae.

[4] Mueller did not give a reason for using the specific epithet (baeckeacea), but noted that the shrub has "a stature of [some species of] Baeckea.

[5] In a 2013 paper in the journal Taxon, Marco Duretto and others changed the name to Cyanothamnus baeckeaceus on the basis of cladistic analysis.

[6] Two subspecies were described by Paul G.Wilson in the journal Nuytsia and the names have subsequently been changed to reflect the change in the genus name: Subspecies baeckeaceus is classed as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife[8] but subspecies patulus is classes as "Priority One" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife,[9] meaning that it is known from only one or a few locations which are potentially at risk.