The needle-shaped leaves are either single or forked, and measure 15 to 70 centimetres (6 to 28 in) long, 1 to 2.5 millimetres (0.039 to 0.098 in) wide and may be upright or drooping.

The rachis is usually 50–250 mm (2.0–9.8 in) long, thickly covered with short, soft, silky hairs.

[2][3][4] The species was first formally described by Robert Brown as Grevillea lorea in 1810 in Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen after being collected in Shoalwater Bay, Queensland in September 1802, before reclassifying it in the genus Hakea in 1830, in his Supplementum primum prodromi florae Novae Hollandiae.

[5] Its name lorea is derived from Latin "made from thin strips of leather" and relates to its leaves.

[3] Cork tree ranges across the interior of central and northern Australia, from the southern Cape York Peninsula in the northeast, south to the Darling Downs in the southeast to northern South Australia and the Pilbara in the west.