Erect, resprouting shrublet with velvety branches up to 1.2m. Leaves are overlapping, ascending to spreading, point-tipped, in whorls of 4-6; flowers are white in dense rounded spikes at tops of the stems, each flower has a pale, stiff calyx with hairless 5-lobed petal tube with hairs in the throat.

Greek: stilbe = to shine or glisten; referring to the glistening flowerheads.