Coprosma virescens is a bushy narrowly-erect shrub or small tree up to 8 m tall, sometimes partly deciduous in winter. It has mottled, knobbly trunks (up to 20 cm) with zig-zagging, divaricating branches at an angle less than 90º. The slender branchlets are a pale yellow-grey.

The thin, hairless, light green leaves are small and broad (5-9 x 3-6 mm). They are often rhomboid with a distinct, tapering, glabrous winged petiole on the branchlets. The fruit is small and usually white tinged with pale yellow. Its habitat is lowland terrace forests and lowland to montane dry hillside scrub in the eastern provinces of North and South islands within an altitude range of 20–760 m. It is rare in most provinces due to loss of lowland forest habitat.