This small, deciduous tree or shrub, with its drooping branches, reach a height of 3–5 m in the domestic garden, but may grow as high as 8 m in its natural environment. White hairs cover the young branches, but loses the hairs as it becomes more mature and lenticels (small openings in the bark) appear. The alternately arranged, elliptical leaves are ± 40–100 × 25–60 mm, leathery green on the top surface, losing hairs on its surface as it matures, however, the hairs on the undersurface of the leaves, which are usually grey or white, is quite significant and gives a silver-grey appearance to the leaf.

Flower heads appear in clusters in terminal panicles and are about 40–400 mm long; they may also appear in short raceme-like panicles, in the axils of leaves. The involucre (a number of bracts surrounding the base of a flower head) is cup-shaped; the bracts appear in rows of 5–8 and decreasing in size and extending down to the base of the capitulum (type of inflorescence in which the flowers are collected in a dense head) stalk. The flowers are dioecious, with male and female flowers occurring on separate trees. Heads with female flowers are larger and produce larger pappi (rings of hairs round the top of the ovary). The flower heads are often produced before the leaves.

The fruit takes the form of a small nutlet, with an apical tuft of tawny bristles, which is about 5 mm long.