It is an erect shrub with broadly egg-shaped to lance-shaped leaves and whitish-cream, tube-shaped flowers with hairy lobes.

Styphelia tenuiflora is an erect, bushy, rigid, glabrous shrub that typically grows up to 0.2–1 m (7.9 in – 3 ft 3.4 in) high.

The leaves are egg-shaped to broadly lance-shaped, about 12 mm (0.47 in) long with a short, almost sessile with a sharply pointed tip.

[3] Styphelia tenuiflora was first formally described in 1839 by John Lindley in his A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony.

[2] Styphelia tenuiflora is listed as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.