The leaves may be either smooth or hairy, 4–10 cm (2–4 in) long and 2.5–5 mm (0.098–0.20 in) wide, linear, flat and twisted at the base and end in a sharp point.

The single inflorescence has 16-24 pink-cream sweetly scented flowers in a raceme and appear in clusters in the leaf axils mostly in upper branchlets.

[2][3][4][5] This hakea was first formally described in 1987 by Byron Lamont from a specimen collected near Pingrup and the description was published in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society.

[6] The specific epithet (erecta) is a Latin word meaning "upright",[7] referring to the more or less erect stems, leaves and fruit.

[4] It is endemic to an area in the Mid West, Wheatbelt, Great Southern and Goldfields-Esperance regions of Western Australia where it grows in scrubland and low woodland on deep sandy soils often around laterite.