It is a glabrous shrub or small tree with narrowly to broadly elliptic leaves, and male and female flowers on separate plants.

Male and female flowers are borne on separate plants, male flowers in leaf axils in groups of 3 to 9, 10–15 mm (0.39–0.59 in) long, each flower oval, 2–3 mm (0.079–0.118 in) in diameter on a pedicel about 3 mm (0.12 in) long, usually with 6 tepals and 2 pairs of stamens.

[2][3] This species was first formally described in 1838 by Allan Cunningham who gave it the name Hedycarya macrophylla in the Annals of Natural History.

[4][5] In 1868, Alphonse Pyramus de Candolle transferred the species to Wilkiea as W. macrophylla in Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis.

[6][7] Large-leaved wilkiea grows in rainforest at altitudes 510 and 610 m (1,670 and 2,000 ft) from central Queensland to the Richmond River in north-eastern New South Wales.