Rounded shrub up to 1m, resprouting from a fire resistant root stock, branches are sparsely hairy. Narrow triangular leaves curve inwards and are 3-6 mm long, almost hairless and held close to the stem; cream coloured flowers are immersed in a whorl of conspicuous slender white to pink bracts and are up to 7mm across; they are massed in clusters at the tops of stems.

Latin: palea = chaff, -aceus = indicates resemblance (chaffy, of chaff-like texture) - covered with small, weak, erect, membranous scales, resembling the palea of Grasses.