It is a spreading shrub with narrowly oblong to more or less linear leaves and clusters of pink to red, and cream-coloured flowers.

The flowers are arranged in clusters of two to ten on a rachis 2.5–10 mm (0.098–0.394 in) long and are pale pink to red and cream-coloured.

The style is shaggy- or woolly-hairy except near its tip, the pistil 13.5–19.5 mm (0.53–0.77 in) long and hairy inside.

[2][3][4][5] Grevillea lanigera was first formally described in 1830 by Robert Brown in his Supplementum primum Prodromi florae Novae Hollandiae from specimens collected near the Lachlan River by Allan Cunningham.

[2][3][4] The species is variable in habit, features of the leaves and abundance of flowers, and forms hybrids with G. rosmarinifolia, G. polybractea and G.