Harpullia pendula is a tree that typically grows to a height of up to 15 m (49 ft) with a dbh 60 cm (24 in), its new growth with soft, fawn-coloured hairs.

The ovary is covered with woolly hairs and the style is 5–10 mm (0.20–0.39 in) long and twisted.

The fruit is a yellow-orange to red capsule 13–25 mm (0.51–0.98 in) long, with a single seed in each locule.

[2][3][4][5] Harpullia pendula was first formally described in 1859 by Ferdinand von Mueller in Transactions of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria from an unpublished description by Jules Émile Planchon, of plants in the forests of Moreton Bay.

[2] Tulipwood grows in dry rainforest on basalt between Coen in Queensland and the Bellinger River in north-eastern New South Wales, at altitudes up to 850 m (2,790 ft).