[3] L. glabrum is an upright, rounded shrub of up to 2½ m (8 ft) high, with a central stem at its foot of up to 10 cm (4 in) in diameter, with a reddish brown bark.

The bracts subtending each individually flower, envelops it at its base, is about 1½ cm (0.6 in) long and 1 cm (0.4 in) wide, with a strongly recurved pointed tip ending in a short thread, and the margins with a regular row of equal hairs, the outside deep carmine in colour in life, rubbery in consistency, densely woolly at base and softly hairy towards the tip.

The higher part of the lobes (called limbs) is narrowly elliptic in shape with a pointy tip, variably covered with long soft hairs.

[2] The Outeniqua pincushion was first recognised as a separate species and described by Edwin Percy Phillips in 1910, but the type specimen was already collected in 1814 by English explorer and naturalist William John Burchell.

It only grows on south-facing, sheltered, cool slopes between of 150–450 m (500–1500 ft) altitude, where it experiences an annual precipitation of 750–1000 mm (30–40 in) more or less evenly distributed over the year.

Plants are found in fynbos on moist peat soils between other very tall shrubs such as Laurophyllus capensis, several species of Leucadendron, Berzelia and Erica, forming a dense vegetation called "hygrophilous macchia".