It is a dwarf, spreading or prostrate shrub with narrowly oblong leaves arranged in opposite pairs, and greenish flowers surrounded by larger dark red or brownish involucral bracts.

Darwinia speciosa is a dwarf, erect, spreading or prostrate shrub that typically grows to a height of 10–30 cm (3.9–11.8 in).

The flowers are greenish, arranged in bell-shaped heads of 8 to 10 surrounded and hidden by dark red or brownish bracts about 30 mm (1.2 in) long.

[2][3][4] This species was first formally described in 1857 by Carl Meissner who gave it the name Genetyllis speciosa in the Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Botany from material collected near the Hill River by James Drummond.

[8] Darwinia speciosa mainly grows in sandy kwongan in the Avon Wheatbelt, Geraldton Sandplains and Swan Coastal Plain bioregions of south-western Western Australia.