Searsia gerrardii is a small, deciduous, multi stemmed shrub or shrub-like tree that grows 2.5 to 5 m in height, older specimens often with drooping branches. The stem bark is reddish and granular. The branchlets are glabrous (hairless) or covered with woolly hairs and have noticeable orange lenticels (raised pores).

Searsia gerrardii has trifoliolate leaves that are 50–100 mm long, olive to dark green above, slightly paler below, and turning red in autumn. The leaflets are oblanceolate to narrowly elliptic , with a smooth to hairy surface. The leaflets have dull yellow veins that are prominent above. Margins are slightly wavy and sparsely and deeply toothed towards the tip, or entire (not toothed). Flowers are small, often clustered together tightly in compact, rounded panicles (sub-glomerulate), that are branched sparingly and are up to 90 mm long. Flowers bloom in late spring to summer and display a greenish yellow to cream colouration, with hairy calyx lobes. The fruits are small drupes (fleshy fruits with a hard seed inside), 3 mm in diameter, oblate (spherical with a flattened top and base), obloid (longer than broad with the broadest part above the middle), glabrous, shiny, green maturing light to dark brown.