It is a shrub with sticky, often varnished foliage, toothed egg-shaped to elliptic leaves and racemes or thyrses of yellow flowers.

Goodenia ovata is an erect, ascending to prostrate shrub that typically grows to a height of 2 m (6 ft 7 in) and has sticky, often varnished foliage.

Flowering occurs throughout the year with a peak from October to March and the fruit is a cylindrical capsule 8–12 mm (0.31–0.47 in) long.

[2][3][4][5][6][9] It grows on medium-nutrient clay soils derived from shale, as well as siltstone and sandstone, in areas of good drainage in a partly-shaded location in moist eucalypt forests alongside Themeda australis and under such trees as turpentine (Syncarpia glomulifera) or blackbutt (Eucalyptus pilularis), or in open forest under swamp oak (Casuarina glauca), forest red gum (Eucalyptus tereticornis), thin-leaved stringybark (E. eugenioides), or woollybutt (E.

[10] The flowers of G. ovata are pollinated by insects, including native bees, honeybees, and hoverflies.