This is a bushy, evergreen, medium-sized shrub, 1–2 m tall, or small tree, with a rounded crown that can grow up to 7 m tall under favourable conditions. It is commonly multiple-stemmed, causing it to have a shrubby appearance. The leaves are opposite, linear-oblong in shape, 30–70 mm long and 3–10 mm wide, broadest in the upper two thirds, tending to curl downwards towards the midrib; with an entire margin. They are thinly leathery and glossy, dark green on the upper surface and dull green on the under surface, with tiny indentations on both surfaces of the leaf. The bark is greyish brown with young branchlets (a small branch or division of a branch) that are 4-angled, with very visible white lenticels (one of many raised pores in the stem of a woody plant) and prominent leaf scars.

The flowers are sweetly scented, small, white and are borne in short, many-flowered, terminal heads, appearing from late winter to late spring (August to October).

Thin, ovoid, fleshy fruits up to 10 × 8 mm are produced after flowering and mature from green to yellowish to purplish black, in early summer (November).

The Dune Olive is easily confused with the Wild Olive (Olea europaea subsp. africana), however, the lower surface of its leaves lack scales and its flowers are in terminal sprays, whereas those of the Wild Olive are in the axils of the leaves.