It is an erect to spreading shrub with elliptic to egg-shaped leaves, and woolly-hairy clusters of rust-coloured to fawn flowers.

The flowers are arranged in clusters on the ends of branchlets and are covered with woolly, rust-coloured to fawn and whitish hairs, the pistil 11–21 mm (0.43–0.83 in) long.

Flowering mainly occurs from spring to autumn and the fruit is a usually hairy, oval follicle 18–22 mm (0.71–0.87 in) long.

[3][4] This species was first formally described in 1794 by James Edward Smith who gave it the name Embothrium boxifolium in his A Specimen of the Botany of New Holland.

[8] The names of two subspecies of G. buxifolia are accepted by the Australian Plant Census: Grey spider flower grows in woodland or heath in New South Wales, on the South Coast, Central Coast and inland to near Pigeon House Mountain west of Ulladulla.