It has flat leaves and white to cream-coloured flowers from late winter to mid-summer and is endemic to Western Australia.Hakea ferruginea is an erect, rounded, non-lignotuberous shrub which typically grows to a height of 1 to 4.5 metres (3 to 15 ft).

[3] The pale green leaf blade is flat, narrowly to broadly egg-shaped or elliptic and is 1.5 to 8.5 centimetres (0.6 to 3.3 in) in length and 1.2 to 2.7 cm (0.47 to 1.06 in) wide.

[4] Hakea ferruginea was first formally described by the botanist Robert Sweet in 1827 and the description was published in Flora Australasica.

[7][8] The specific epithet is a Latin word meaning "rust-coloured" or "rusty",[9] referring to the colour of new growth.

[4] Hakea ferruginea is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife.