It is a shrub or small tree with dark green, sticky leaves and flowers that are red on top fading to yellow-green below.

Flowering occurs from June to September and is followed by fruits which are dry, oval to cone-shaped with a pointed end and are 7.5–13 mm (0.3–0.5 in) long.

[3][4][2][5][6] Eremophila duttonii was first formally described in 1858 by Ferdinand von Mueller in Quarterly Journal and Transactions of the Pharmaceutical Society of Victoria.

[10] Study of six species of eremophilas showed that E. duttonii had the highest antimicrobial potency, especially against gram-positive bacteria, including those that are resistant to the antibiotics meticillin and vancomycin.

As it is difficult to propagate from both seed and cuttings, grafting on to rootsock of Myoporum species is often undertaken to produce new plants.