Its small yellow flowers grow on racemes and appear in the austral summer and autumn (January to April), followed by green fleshy fruits (known as drupes) which ripen the following spring (September to October).

Persoonia lanceolata was first collected at Botany Bay in April 1770, by Sir Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander, naturalists on the British vessel HMS Endeavour during Lieutenant (later Captain) James Cook's first voyage to the Pacific Ocean.

[10] Robert Brown used Andrews' name in his 1810 work Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen.

These species often interbreed with each other where two members of the group occur,[13] and hybrids of P. lanceolata with P. katerae, P. levis, P. linearis, P. stradbrokensis and P. virgata have been recorded.

[4] The glaucous-leaved P. glaucescens was formerly considered a subspecies of P. lanceolata, but no intermediate forms have been recorded from where the two taxa grow together near Hill Top in the Southern Highlands.

P. lanceolata is described as auxotelic, which means each stalk bears an individual flower that is subtended by a leaf at its junction with the stem.

[13] Each individual flower consists of a cylindrical perianth which splits into four segments or tepals, and contains both male and female parts.

Within this, the central style is surrounded by the anther, which splits into four segments; these curl back and resemble a cross when viewed from above.

Its habitat extends to dry sclerophyll forest and heathland on sandstone-based soils low in nutrients,[4] particularly on the tops of ridges and slopes.

[16] P. lanceolata is found from sea level to an altitude of 700 m (2,300 ft), and the annual rainfall of the area it occurs in the Sydney Basin is 900–1,400 mm (35–55 in).

In more forested areas it is an understory shrub alongside Lambertia formosa, Leptospermum trinervium, Daviesia corymbosa, Banksia serrata and B. ericifolia under such trees as Eucalyptus sclerophylla, E. piperita, E. sieberi, E. sparsifolia, E. punctata and Corymbia gummifera.

[17] The swamp wallaby (Wallabia bicolor) feeds on the fallen fruit of P. lanceolata and disperses the seed through its scat (dung).

A field study in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park found that 88% of seeds in the scat were still viable although dormant.

[17] Colletid bees of the genus Leioproctus, subgenus Cladocerapis, forage exclusively on and pollinate flowers of many species of Persoonia.

[17] Persoonia lanceolata is rarely seen in cultivation, mainly due to difficulties in propagation; seed germination is unpredictable, and cuttings have proven difficult to strike.

[5] Once established, it tolerates moderate frosts and dry spells, and grows fairly readily in suitable conditions.