Plants trees, to 10 tall; bark fissure; branches glabrous to sparsely appressed pilose when young. Leaves to 11 cm long, 2 cm wide, glabrous or almost so, lanceolate, base attenuate, tip acute. Inflorescences on sericeous peduncles, globose or slightly elongate heads 5-6 mm in diameter; bracts triangular acuminate, pubescent. Flowers white or cream, hypanthium and sepals pubescent. Fruits about 2.5 mm long and 2.5 mm wide, pubescent, not beaked.
Conocarpus lancifolius grows naturally along watercourses in semi-deserts of coastal zone in Yemen and Somaliland and may be locally dominant. It is also cultivated.