It is a shrub with paripinnate leaves with 6 to 8 leaflets, white flowers with a pink tinge, and crimson capsules containing 2 seeds with a yellow aril.

The flowers are strongly perfumed, borne in clusters of mostly 2 to 4 in upper leaf axils 30–120 mm (1.2–4.7 in) long, each flower on a slender, hairy peduncle up to 5 mm (0.20 in) long.

The fruit is a laterally compressed, crimson capsule about 12–16 mm (0.47–0.63 in) long containing two shiny seeds, enclosed in a yellow, cup-shaped aril.

[2][3][4] Harpullia frutescens was first formally described in 1889 by Frederick Manson Bailey in a report on the Government Scientific Expedition to the Bellenden-Ker Range.

[7] Dwarf harpullia is common in rainforest from Ayton to the Atherton Tableland area in North Queensland, usually in hilly country.