Shrublet, usually with erect branches, up to 60cm. Leaves leathery, wedge-shaped to lance-shaped but broadest towards tips, mostly 3-5 toothed, stipules leafy. Flowers red to orange; calyx is inflated, prominently 5-angled, glabrous and shining.

Like Hermannia rudis but calyx more inflated and calyx lobes glabrous except along the margins. Calyx lobes of Hermannia rudis are flat, ovate and roughly papery