It is an erect or prostrate shrub with sharply-pointed linear leaves and orange-red flowers with blue or purple markings.

The flowers are arranged singly or in groups of up to four in leaf axils on a peduncle up to about 1 mm (0.039 in) long.

The standard petal is orange-red with blue or purple markings, the keel purplish and nearly as long as the wings.

[2][3] Mirbelia pungens was first formally described in 1832 by George Don in A General History of Dichlamydeous Plants from an unpublished manuscript by Allan Cunningham.

[6] This mirbelia grows in stony areas in heath and is widespread in south-eastern Queensland, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and in the far north-east of Victoria.