Leucadendron loeriense is a slender, upright shrub 2-3 m tall, branching from a single stem. Leaves are dark green often flushed with red, 20-35 mm long and 3-6 mm wide, narrowly oblong with a sharply pointed tip, and are covered in velvety hairs. The involucral leaves form a decorative, star-like cup and are produced in mid-summer (December-January). Up to 16 involucral leaves are crowded at the tips of the stems, each one lance-shaped and yellowish to greenish white, and hairless on the inner surface. The male flowerhead is cone-shaped, 15 mm long and 12 mm wide and yellow. The female flowerhead is egg-shaped, 13 mm long and 10 mm wide.

Insome plants, the involucral leaves of the female do not change colour. The cone is greenish with yellow flowers, and as the cone ages it becomes tinged with red, often ending off completely red. Mature cones are 25 mm long and 20 mm in diameter. Seeds are small, 6 mm long, black, triangular, with a broad wing. They take several months to ripen, and are retained in the cones on the plant for several years.

Leucadendron loeriense is very similar to L. uliginosum subsp. uliginosum, the Outeniqua conebush and L. uliginosum subsp. glabratum, the Tsitsikamma conebush. L. loeriense cones are reddish or yellow, whereas those of L. uliginosum are silvery. And, looking at the leaves, the hairs on L. loeriense leaves are erect, whereas on L. uliginosum subsp. uliginosum the hairs lie flat against the leaf surface, and in the subsp. glabrata they are hairless when mature. Also, L. uliginosum subsp. uliginosum has an overall silvery appearance whereas L. loeriense does not.