It is a spreading, bushy shrub with divided leaves with erect, linear lobes and clusters of white to cream-colured flowers displayed above the foliage.

Flowering mainly occurs from July to January and the fruit is a smooth, oblong follicle 20–24 mm (0.79–0.94 in) long.

[2][3][4] Grevillea leucopteris was first formally described in 1855 by Carl Meissner in Hooker's Journal of Botany and Kew Garden Miscellany from specimens collected by James Drummond.

[5] The specific epithet (leucopteris) means "white-winged", referring to the seeds.

[6][7][4] Old socks grows in heath and shrubland and is found from the lower Murchison River to near Marchagee in the Avon Wheatbelt, Geraldton Sandplains, Swan Coastal Plain and Yalgoo bioregions of south-western Western Australia.