It is a monoecious shrub with simple, lance-shaped or linear to narrowly oblong leaves and creamy white male and pale green female flowers arranged singly in upper leaf axils, but appearing clustered on the ends of branches.

The flowers are arranged singly in upper leaf axils with bracts 0.5–1 mm (0.020–0.039 in) long at the base, but appear to be clustered on the ends of branches.

[2] Pseudanthus ligulatus was first formally described in 2003 by David Halford and Rodney Henderson in the journal Austrobaileya from specimens collected near Mareeba in 1989.

Subspecies ligulatus occurs from the Mareeba district, south to Charters Towers and east to the Cumberland Islands in northern Queensland.

Subspecies volcanicus is restricted to the Glasshouse Mountains in south-east Queensland, where it grows in rock crevices and on cliff faces.