Shrub to 2 m high. Branchlets with stellate hairs (moderately dense to very dense and obscuring the epidermis, long soft hairs 1.5–2 mm long, and short soft stellate hairs 0.2–0.3 mm long) and glandular hairs. Climax leaves: petiole 20–50 mm long; lamina broadly elliptic, 3-lobed, 21–58 mm long, 14–60 mm wide, base cordate, margin serrate-dentate to crenate, apex acute to rounded, indumentum short soft stellate-hairy, whitish to yellowish. Flowers without a peduncle, pedicel present; epicalyx with short soft stellate hairs, 7-segmented, segments shortly connate at the base, narrowly spathulate to linear-obovate, shorter than the calyx, 7–15 mm long, 0.5–1 mm wide; calyx short soft stellate-hairy on the abaxial surface, campanulate, 12–18 mm long at anthesis, lobes ovate, apex acute, 3-veined; petals yellow with red basal spots, short coarse stellate-hairy on the abaxial surface, glabrous on the adaxial surface, 35–57 mm long, 14–43 mm wide, rounded at the apex; staminal column glabrous, 22–27 mm long, stamens distributed throughout, filaments 0.5–1 mm long; ovary hairy, style arms 1.5–4 mm long. Capsule hairy, 12–16 mm long, 8–10 mm wide, beak c. 1 mm long. Seeds angular reniform, 2.5–3 mm long, concentrically ribbed, glabrous or short brownish stellate-hairy.
Occurs in low woodland with Eucalyptus terminalis, Lysiphyllum cunninghamii and Atalaya hemiglauca in red sand soils; in the understorey of a regenerating Melaleuca acacioides thicket; on a coastal sand dune above high tide mark with Spinifex, Tribulus and mangrove nearby; on black soil; in cleared country on subsaline crumbly grey soil; and in grassland. This species has been recorded from quite diverse soil types and it is not unexpected that the communities that it has been recorded from are also diverse. Given that the geographic range of H. apodus is not especially large, it is of interest that it is found in such a range of habitats.
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