Evergreen perennial, woody subshrub, up to 1 m tall, or mat-forming and rooting at the nodes. Leaves pinnatipartite to bipinnatipartite, glabrous or pubescent. Flower heads radiate, large, solitary on long peduncle; outer involucral bracts with membraneous, triangular, acuminate apices, inner bracts with ovate or rounded, silvery appendages; ray florets white, yellow, bright orange or sometimes red, often with a reddish brown reverse; disc florets yellow or with purple tips, paleae with prominent scale-like appendages that fold over the developing disc florets creating a shiny disc. Fruits modified to wind dispersal with a biseriate pappus of large outer scales and filiform inner scales. Flowers in winter to early summer (June to October).

The species as recognised is extremely variable (Magee et al. 2014) and its delimitation is currently being investigated as part of a taxonomic revision of Ursinia subgenus Ursinia (Magee et al. in prep.). There are three main forms which are sometimes available in cultivation:

1. A mat-forming form with pale to bright yellow (sometimes cream-coloured) ray florets and prostrate or procumbent branches which often root along the nodes. This form occurs naturally in the southern Cape, often near the coast.

2. A shrubby form with more or less upright, white-hairy branches and bright orange ray florets. This form occurs throughout Namaqualand.

3. A rare red-rayed form currently treated as variety geyeri. In the wild the ray florets of this form vary from yellow to orange or crimson-red.