It is an important pioneer species which colonises coastal dunes, binding loose sand with its horizontal runners.

[1][2] The 1889 book The Useful Native Plants of Australia records that common names included "Spring Rolling Grass" and that it "has no claim whatever as a food plant for stock, and can only be recommended as a sand-binder in fixing drift sands when encroaching on valuable land.

"[3] Spinifex sericeus has branched stolons and rhizomes extending up to 1–2 metres (3.3–6.6 ft).

[1] The male inflorescence is an orange-brown terminal cluster of spiky racemes subtended by silky bracts.

The female inflorescence detaches at maturity, a globose seed head of sessile racemes up to 20 cm in diameter which becomes a tumbleweed.