The leaves on the single terminal rosette are erect or horizontal (with age) and held at the end of linear petioles, which are typically 20–35 mm (approximately 1 inch) long at flowering time.

Inflorescences are 20–40 cm (8–16 in) long with pink or white flowers being produced on 50- to 70-flowered crowded racemes from July to September during the dry season.

Drosera paradoxa is native to the west and north coasts of the Kimberley region inland to Beverley Springs, Western Australia and east to Arnhem Land and Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory.

Some populations seemed to be annual with new seedlings replacing the mature, woody plants that had existed there the previous year.

Several trips into the field from 1993 to 1997 were required to reveal these different forms to be only stages in this species' perennial growth cycle from seedling to pincushion basal rosette to erect woody-stemmed specimen.