The simple, stalkless leaves of Phylica lanata spiral up the younger stems, angled upwards. Small and narrow, the ericoid blades taper to their pointed tips, the margins rolled under. The leaves are up to 6 mm long, sparsely hairy and the upper surfaces coarsely tuberculate.
The small, bisexual flowers grow at stem-tips in dense and flattish to shallowly domed clusters. Numerous, white-woolly buds predominate in picture.
The open flowers each has five pointed, triangular lobes, red on the inside, white outside. These lobes spread to 5 mm in diameter, the flower tube only 1 mm long (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist).