It is an erect, spreading shrub with narrow, prickly leaves and off-white, bell-like flowers with dark purple streaks.

Pityrodia pungens is a straggling shrub which grows to a height of 40–75 cm (20–30 in) and has branches sometimes covered with star-like hairs.

The sepals are joined for less than half their length to form a bell-shaped tube with five lance-shaped, hairy lobes 4–6.5 mm (0.16–0.26 in) long.

[2][3] Pityrodia pungens was first formally described in 1979 by Ahmad Abid Munir from a specimen collected in the Nitmiluk National Park.

[2][4] The specific epithet (pungens) is a Latin word meaning "sharp", "acrid", "biting" or "piercing".