All species are shrubs which occur in dry fynbos habitats on the fringes of the Succulent Karoo ecoregion.

The inflorescences are similar to those of the related leucospermums but also share features of the leucadendrons, with the floral bracts becoming woody and enlarged following pollination.

[3] Vexators are upright or spreading evergreen shrubs with alternately set, narrow, spade-shaped leaves ending bluntly in a bony tip, with an entire margin, and greyish or bluish in colour.

The fruit is an egg-shaped hairless or powdery achene, that is beaked at its tip, and blunt and wrinkly at its base.

Vexatorella belongs to a group that (except for Leucospermum saxosum) further only consists of genera endemic to the Cape Floristic Region, that together constitute the subtribe Leucadendrinae.