It has entire, sword-shaped, mostly hairy, line- to lance-shaped, straight or sickle-shaped leaves, set in a fan at ground level with a lax to dense panicle consisting of pale apricot to yellow mirror-symmetric flowers with six tepals, three stamens and a undivided style that curves either to the right or left.

Flowering occurs between August and December at sea level, and until early February at high altitude, with a distinct peak from September to November.

Its dull to yellowish green, line- to narrowly lance-shaped or broadly sickle-shaped leaves of 1–7 mm (0.039–0.276 in) wide and 5–35 cm (2.0–13.8 in) long, each have three veins, may be hairy or hairless, appear annually during the winter half year and die when the plant releases its seed to survive the dry, hot summer.

The flowering stem is densely covered in short, simple hairs, may sometimes reach a height of 1 m (3.3 ft) and is 3–15 mm (0.12–0.59 in) in diameter.

W. brachyandra has apricot to pale yellow flowers in a lax panicle, clustered stamens, which are like the style less than half the length of the tepals (not apricot to pale or bright yellow or orange flowers in a lax to dense panicle, diverging stamens and style of at least two thirds as long as the tepals).

Carl Peter Thunberg renamed the specimen described by Linnaeus the Younger (in 1781), creating the invalid name W. graminea, and he also distinguished W. hirsuta and W. tenella, both in his book Flora Capensis - sistens plantas promontorii Bonæ Spei Africes - secundum systema sexuale emendatum of 1811.

In their 1992 revision of the genus Wachendorfia, Nick Helme and Hans Peter Linder conclude that all these names should be treated as synonyms because W. paniculata is a very variable species, which shows the characters that should distinguish between the different taxa in all combinations.

It grows in permanently moist shales, but also on moderately to very dry soils in fynbos on both acid and alkaline sands, and can be present in strandveld and renosterveld.