Growing up to 8 metres (26 ft) tall, the plant has shiny green pinnate leaves and bears red flowers in the summer, but yields neither fruit nor seeds.

The individual plants of L. tasmanica are straggly shrubs or small trees to 8 m (26 ft) high, though taller or longer trunked specimens are often bent over.

Winifred Curtis of the Tasmanian Herbarium named the plant in King's honour in 1967, after he sent specimens he collected at Cox's Bight, Port Davey to be identified in 1965.

The climate is wet, receiving an average total of 1700 mm of rain each year, and all plants grow within 25 metres (82 ft) of a river or creek.

L. tasmanica mainly grows in rainforest or mixed forest made up of trees 8–15 metres (26–49 ft) high such as myrtle beech (Lophozonia cunninghamii), celery-top pine (Phyllocladus aspleniifolius), southern sassafras (Atherosperma moschatum), leatherwood (Eucryphia lucida), satinwood (Nematolepis squamea), blue-green tea tree (Leptospermum glaucescens), and horizontal scrub (Anodopetalum biglandulosum), as well as understory species such as thyme archeria (Archeria serpyllifolia), native plum (Cenarrhenes nitida), sweet-scented trochocarpa (Trochocarpa gunnii), Raukaua gunnii, white waratah (Agastachys odorata), climbing heath (Prionotes cerinthoides), hard water fern (Parablechnum wattsii), and brickmaker's sedge (Gahnia grandis).

L. tasmanica also extends into neighbouring dry sclerophyll forest composed of Smithton peppermint over an understory of blue-green tea tree on more elevated areas.

Finally, it grows in a dense riverbank scrubland with species such as silver banksia (Banksia marginata), mānuka (Leptospermum scoparium), prickly-leaved wattle (Acacia verticillata), swamp honey-myrtle (Melaleuca squamea), scented paperbark (M. squarrosa), horizontal scrub, and Smithton peppermint over a dense low understory of Bauera rubioides, Gahnia grandis, Epacris aff.

heteronema, scrambling coral fern (Gleichenia microphylla), Calorophus erostris, lesser wire rush (Empodisma minus), and button grass (Gymnoschoenus sphaerocephalus).

Lomatia tasmanica has been declared critically endangered under the Australian government's Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.

Due to its inability to reproduce sexually, there is no possibility of increasing the plant's genetic diversity to promote disease resistance through purely natural means.

Infestation with the oomycete pathogen Phytophthora cinnamomi has been recorded in other plant species around 20 metres (66 ft) away from some wild L. tasmanica populations.

Uniquely developed Pressurized Hot Water Extraction (PHWE) utilising a household espresso machine was conducted on the leaves as well as a Diethyl-Ether maceration.