Mimetes cucullatus is an evergreen shrub with several, mostly not branching, upright stems of 1–2 m (3–7 ft) high, that has been assigned to the family Proteaceae.

Mimetes cucullatus is an evergreen, upright shrub of 1–2 m (3–7 ft) high, that has a firm woody tuber in the ground, from which several stems rise.

These stems are upright, 3–8 mm (0.12–0.32 in) thick, mostly not branching but occasionally forking, initially covered in grey felty hair, but this tends to wear off with age.

The upper part (or limbs), which enclosed the pollen presenter in the bud, are line-shaped with a pointy tip, difficult to differentiate from te claws and densely silky hairy.

When the flowers open, the styles grow longer, break free from the perianth, and are pressed in the overhead leaf.

M. cucullatus is a shrub with not or shyly branching stems that individually emerge from the ground, and the shorter leaves of 2½–5½ cm long lack a fringe of hairs.

of 1696, in which he describes it as Leucadendros Africana, s. Scolymocephalus, angustiori folio, apicibus tridentatis [African white tree with artichoke head, narrow leaves with tips having three teeth].

Carl Meissner, who contributed a section on the Proteaceae in 1856 to the series Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis by Alphonse Pyramus de Candolle, recognized two slightly different forms calling them M. cucullatus var.

John Patrick Rourke considers the common pagoda a species with much variability, but found that the forms all grade into each other, and concludes all these names should be treated as synonyms of Mimetes cucullatus.

The species name cucullātus is Latin, means "hooded" and refers to the hood-like shape of the leaf that actually subtends the flower head higher up the stem.

Rooi is the Afrikaans word for red, and refers to the scarlet colour of new growth and the leaves that subtend the flower heads.

[5] Mimetes cucullatus is the most widely distributed pagoda species, found from west of the Olifants River valley near Porterville in the north and the Cape Peninsula in the southwest, to the Langeberg range in the east.

Mimetes cucullatus has special glands on the tips of its leaves called extrafloral nectaries, which attract ants.