It grows in a rosette 3 to 4 cm in diameter with green to red leaves.

It is entirely endemic to Kangaroo Island in South Australia and occurs mostly in the northern and eastern areas.

It grows in sandy clay with laterite soils in open areas amongst Allocasuarina muelleriana and often in the presence of Stylidium tepperianum.

[1] It was first discovered in September 2002 by Father Erwin Schmutz, for whom the species is named.

It was then grown in cultivation for several years while further specimens were examined and finally formally described by Allen Lowrie and John Godfrey Conran in 2008.