It is a spreading shrub with linear to lance-shaped leaves and groups of up to six yellow to red flowers in the upper leaf axils.

Homoranthus prolixus is a spreading shrub to 0.8 m (2 ft 7 in) high with a mostly ascending growth habit, and branches that arch upwards at the apex.

[3][4][5] Homoranthus prolixus was first formally described in 1991 by Lyndley Craven and S.R.Jones and the description was published in Australian Systematic Botany.

[6][7] The specific epithet (prolixus) is a Latin word meaning "stretched out" or "long".

[3] This homoranthus is considered vulnerable by Briggs and Leigh (1996), but now known to be well reserved and often locally abundant.