Erect evergreen woody and sparingly branched shrub up to 2.5 m tall. The main branch is about 30 mm in diameter at the base, the side branches are short. The shrub is densely covered with grey-green velvety hairs. The hairs are sometimes branched in star-like manner (stellate) or simple. The leaves are leathery, alternately arranged on the nodes about 10-12 mm apart, but often crowded at the tip where the internodes are very short. The leaf blades are ascending-spreading, reversed egg-shaped (obovate), up to 50 mm long and 25 mm broad and bear 5-7 pairs of shallow, saw-like teeth. The veins on the lower leaf surface are conspicuous, radiating from the central vein in a menorah-like (7-branched candelabrum) fashion. All parts of the leaves are densely covered with short velvety grey-green hairs. The leaf point is sharp to blunt and the base is wedge-shaped. The petiole is short to about 15 mm long and each mature leaf bears two whitish oval glands (opposite each other) near the base of the leaf blade. Each mature gland has a conspicuous orange-coloured rim, and produces a droplet of nectar (extra-floral nectaries). The flowers are solitary and their stalks (pedicels) are fused at their base to the upper side of the leaf stalks (petioles).Each flower bears two thread-like bracts about 7 mm long. The calyx is tubular, about 12 mm long with narrowly pointed lobes. The 5 petals are at first rolled up lengthwise (convolute), but when the flower opens during the day they spread out (flower up to 50 mm in diameter when fully opened). The petals are reversed egg-shaped (obovate) and about 25 mm long. They are bright yellow but dark brown and black towards the centre. The fruiting capsule is egg-shaped, about 9 mm long, with three chambers. The seeds are slightly curved, cylindrical and 4 mm long.

The genus Turnera consists of about 100 species and is mainly confined to South America, with only two members in Africa, one species in Namibia and Angola and the other confined to tropical Africa. Turnera oculata has two varieties: var. oculata, a tall erect shrub, and var. paucipilosa, a small spreading shrub confined to the mountains adjacent to the Kunene.

Turnera belongs to the family Turneraceae a small family with about hundred species most of which are confined to South America but with a few members in southern Africa. According to Bredenkamp (2003) the family Turneraceae is represented in South Africa and Namibia by 4 genera and 10 species. Turnera is the largest genus with more than 50 species of which only one species, T. oculata occurs in Namibia and southern Angola. All Turnera species have extra-floral nectaries at the ends of their leaf petioles near the bases of their attachment to the leaf blade.