It is a herb-like shrub with sticky foliage, linear to lance-shaped leaves with the narrower end towards the base, racemes of blue flowers, and cylindrical to oval fruit.

Goodenia xanthotricha is a herb-like shrub that typically grows to a height of up to 50 cm (20 in), its foliage covered with glandular hairs and sticky.

Flowering mainly occurs from November to February and the fruit is a cylindrical to oval capsule 5–6 mm (0.20–0.24 in) long.

[2][3] Goodenia xanthotricha was first formally described in 1854 by Willem Hendrik de Vriese in the journal Natuurkundige Verhandelingen van de Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen te Haarlem.

[2][3] This goodenia is classified as "Priority Two" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife,[2] meaning that it is poorly known and from only one or a few locations.