[2] The silveredge pincushion is a large, rounded shrub or sometimes a small tree of up to 4 m (13 ft) high, that has a stout trunk of 10–20 cm (4–8 in) in diameter covered in a thick corky bark.

The common base of the flowers in the same head is narrowly cone-shaped with a pointy tip, 4–5 cm (1.6–2.0 in) long and 7–10 mm (0.28–0.39 in) wide.

The lobes in the middle part (or claws), where the perianth is split lengthwise, curve back on their base when the flower opens, and is densely woolly hairy.

The upper part, which enclosed the pollen presenter in the bud consists of four strongly recurved, oval limbs of about 4 mm (0.16 in) long, hairless of [clarification needed] with some stiff, bristly hairs.

[2] The silveredge pincushion differs from its relatives by the tree-like habit (shared with L. conocarpodendron), large, roundish leaves with three to eight teeths, the middle part of the flower woolly hairy, and the skewed, spinning-top shaped pollen presenter.

von Schreber had these specimens in their herbarium collections, but filed them as L. conocarpodendron, and their distinctiveness was overlooked for over two hundred years.

[4] L. patersonii can be found between Cape Agulhas in the east along the coast to Stanford, with an outlying population at Heuningklip Kloof, near Kleinmond.

The silveredge pincushion usually grows in fairly dense stands in a vegetation that also contains other Proteaceae with a preference for limestone, including Mimetes saxatilis, Protea obtusifolia and Leucadendron meridianum.