"Terminalia ferdinandiana" is a slender, small to medium-sized tree growing up to in height, with creamy-grey, flaky bark and deciduous pale green leaves. The flowers are small, creamy-white, perfumed, and borne along spikes in the leaf axils towards the ends of the branches. Flowering is from September to December. (Southern hemisphere spring/summer.) The leaf blades are strongly discolorous with a broadly elliptic to broadly ovate, occasionally obovate shape and are in length with a width of and have a rounded apex. The inflorescences are long and are glabrous throughout.