Spyridium vexilliferum is a low-lying to erect shrub that typically grows to a height of up to 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) and has its branchlets densely covered with star-shaped, often rust-coloured hairs.

The heads of "flowers" are about 5 mm (0.20 in) in diameter and shaggy-hairy surrounded by up to 4 egg-shaped or oblong, woolly-white floral leaves.

[2][4] In 1834, William Jackson Hooker described Cryptandra vexillifera in The Journal of Botany from specimens collected at Port Dalrymple.

latifolium in Flora Australiensis,[9] and the name, and that of the autonym are accepted by the Australian Plant Census: The variety vexilliferum grows in sandy heath, heathy woodland or mallee and on rocky outcrops from the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia to scattered locations in south-western Victoria and in the east, north and west of Tasmania.

vexilliferum is listed as "rare" in Tasmania under the Tasmanian Government Threatened Species Protection Act 1995.