It is indigenous to the coastal fynbos areas in and around the city of Cape Town, South Africa.

Passerina ericoides is a shrub typically up to 1 metre high, with narrow, slightly succulent, leaves some two to three mm long, its flowers are greenish-yellow to reddish, and are subtended by leaflike bracts.

Unlike most species of Passerina, the plant bears fleshy orange or red berries.

Passerina ericoides is an excellent plant for stabilising mobile sand dunes.

Its strong, extensive roots bind the sand, and send up shoots elsewhere to do likewise.