Sprawling, clonal, herbaceous perennial or subshrub to 0.5 m wide, grey-green, densely pubescent with stellate hairs; prickles to 5 mm long, common on stems, and on pedicel and calyx of bisexual flower, less common elsewhere.  

Leaves usually ovate to elliptic; lamina 2.5-8 cm long, 1-4 cm wide, usually deeply lobed; petiole 10-25 mm long.  

Inflorescence of one bisexual flower below elongating cyme of 3-many male flowers; peduncle to 10 mm long. Bisexual flower: pedicel c. 10 mm long, lengthening in fruit; calyx 7-10 mm long, the lobes narrowly triangular, several often partly fused, 5-6 mm long, lengthening in fruit; corolla pentagonal, 30 mm diam., purple; anthers 5-7 mm long. Male flowers similar: pedicels 5-8 mm long.  

Berry globular, 15-25 mm diam., whitish to pale green or yellow when ripe; fruiting pedicel 2-3 cm long; fruiting calyx-lobes 1-2 cm long. Seeds 2-2.5 mm long, very dark brown or black. n=12.

An andromonoecious species i.e. one in which there are male flowers and bisexual flowers on the one plant. Often there are many male flowers in an inflorescence with 1(-2) bisexual flowers at their base.

While this species usually has only one bisexual flower at the base of the inflorescence, occasional specimens do produce more than one bisexual flower. For instance, in the collection Symon 12125 from between East Baines River area of N.T., one or two small fruits have formed on the rachis above the usual larger fruit at the base of the whole inflorescence. Whether these extra fruits develop fully is not known.

Andromonoecious species of the Dioicum group in Australia include S. beaugleholei, S. clarkiae, S. chippendalei, S. diversiflorum, S. eburneum, S. heteropodium, S. melanospermum, S. oedipus and S. phlomoides .

Symon (1981) indicated that S. eburneum was most closely related to the other andromonoecious species, S. diversiflorum, and to a lesser extent, S. chippendalei . The DNA studies of Martine et al. (2006) did not include S. eburneum but it was thought that S. diversiflorum , together with S. chippendalei, S. beaugleholei, S. phlomoides and probably S. eburneum formed one of three clades for the andromonoecious species of the Dioicum group of subgen. Leptostemonum.