Leaves are narrowly oval shaped, widest in the middle up to 12 cm long and 5–20 mm (0.2–0.8 in) wide tapering to a point or occasionally rounded at the apex.

Young leaves are darker with sparse flattened silky white and rusty coloured hairs quickly becoming smooth.

The type specimen was grown in the garden of Jacques Philippe Martin Cels from material collected from Botany Bay in 1792.

[6][7] In 1941, English botanist Brian Burtt changed the name to Hakea salicifolia and published the description in Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information.

angustifolia was first formally described in 1920 by Arthur Andrew Hamilton in Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales[13][14] before being renamed Hakea salicifolia subsp.

[17]: 123  An attractive ornamental tree adaptable to most soils and aspects from sub-tropical to temperate zones creating issues with over abundance of the species in some localities.