[4] The plant is usually a shrub, not often forming a single trunk, instead growing multiple branches from around the base.

The leaves are needle-like, 4 to 8 centimetres (1.6 to 3.1 in) long, sharply pointed, green above and with glaucous stomatal bands beneath.

[3] It is associated as part of the understorey species present in lowland jarrah and karri and it spreads mostly by root suckering.

The plum-like fruit is edible, although lacking any distinctive taste,[5] and noted as an important food of the first peoples of Southwest Australia.

[6] The species was initially described by the botanist Ferdinand von Mueller in 1864 in his work Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae.