Greyia sutherlandii is a large shrub or small tree, 3 to 7 m high. It is deciduous and in late autumn the leaves turn shades of bright red. Young trees are compact and old trees do not grow tall but they spread and have rough, dark trunks. The leaves are simple, alternate, rather leathery, slightly lobed and coarsely toothed. The leaf surface is hairless and minutely glandular. The leaf veins radiate from the base. The leaf stalk is long and straight.

The beautiful flowers are red, with oblong petals and long protruding stamens. The showy flowers open in closely packed racemes at the tips of the branches and bloom towards the end of winter, in spring and into early summer. The fruit is a pale brown, cone-shaped, cylindrical capsule, of 20 mm long. It splits in 4 or 5 parts when ripe to release seeds from October to December. The wood is pale pink and generally light and soft.