It has scaly branchlets, narrow oblong to more or less cylindrical leaves and yellow flowers in umbels of three to ten.

The type specimen was collected by botanist Ferdinand von Mueller in "the Grampian Mountains and desert of the Tattiara country towards the Murray river".

[7][8] It was subsequently published as a species in its own right by Joseph Maiden and Ernst Betche in A Census of New South Wales Plants in 1916.

[9][10] Narrow-leaved phebelium grows in eucalypt woodland, heath or mallee in disjunct populations in the central and southern tablelands of New South Wales and near the Victorian-South Australian border.

The species has some frost tolerance and performs best in a well-drained, partially shaded position.