It is an erect to spreading shrub with smooth bark, spatula-shaped or elliptic to linear leaves and bright yellow flowers borne in groups of up to ten along a rachis up to 70 mm (2.8 in) long.

[2][3][4][5][6] Persoonia coriacea was first formally described in 1928 by James Wales Claredon Audas and Patrick Francis Morris from specimens collected by Max Koch near Merredin on 30 November 1923.

The description was published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia.

It grows on yellow sand dunes or sandplains, or on sandy clay soils, sometimes over laterite, red sand or granite and occurs in heathland and mallee heath plant communities.

[3][5] The uncommon blue-breasted fairywren has been recorded using this shrub as a nest site.