 Flowering occurs mainly from March to October and is followed by fruits which are dry, woody, oval-shaped to conical, hairy, long and have a papery, sometimes sticky covering.The first formal description of the species was published in 1859 by Ferdinand von Mueller in "Report on the Plants Collected During Mr. Babbage's Expedition into the North West Interior of South Australia in 1858", the type specimen being collected from the "Thompson River".The specific epithet "latrobei" honours Charles La Trobe who was Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria from 1851 to 1854.