It has glandular-warty stems covered with silvery to rust-coloured scales, wedge-shaped leaves that are scaly on the lower surface, and yellow flowers arranged in umbels on the ends of branchlets.

The calyx is hemispherical to top-shaped, 1–1.5 mm (0.039–0.059 in) long, glandular warty and covered with scales on the outside.

Flowering occurs in spring and the follicles are erect and 3–4 mm (0.12–0.16 in) long.

[2][3][4][5] The species was first formally described by English botanist William Jackson Hooker in Thomas Mitchell's Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia in 1848.

The names of the six subspecies are accepted at the Australian Plant Census: Phebalium glandulosum is widespread in heath, forest and mallee and occurs in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.