[3][4] This species was first described as Struthiola striata by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck in 1792, based on a collection by the French gardener-botanist Joseph Martin in the Cape area (Cap B. Spei).

[1] Ribbed capespray is a rounded shrub of up to 1.5 m (4.9 ft) high that emerges from a single trunk from the ground.

The leaves are in pairs opposing each other, more or less upright, overlapping each other, with the blade directly attached to the branche without a leaf stalk.

[1] The flowers are seated in the axils of the leaves over a considerable length towards the tip of the branches, an inflorescence type called a spike.

The calyx is cream-coloured, with at its base a cylindrical tube of about 1 cm (0.39 in) long that is covered on the outside with soft hairs pressed against its surface and at its top 4 oval protracted, almost pointy lobes of 1–2 mm (0.039–0.079 in) long and 1.5–2.5 mm (0.059–0.098 in) wide, hairless but for a tuft of hairs at the tips of the outer pair.

[4][5] Struthiola striata is restricted to coast of the Western Cape province of South Africa, between Yzerfontein in the north and Mossel Bay in the east.