Olearia furfuracea is a native shrub found in coastal scrub and forest margins of the northern half of the North Island. The leaves are dark green and leathery with buff tomentum underneath. It has white daisy-like flowers in Summer and the seeds are dispersed by the wind. It can obtain a height of 2-3 m.

The description below is from Allan (1961) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 1. Shrub or tree up to 5 m. tall, branchlets grooved, pubescent. Lvs 5-10 × 3-6 cm., on petioles up to 2.5 cm. long, obliquely ovate- to elliptic-oblong, coriac., glab. above when mature, clad in thin appressed brownish lustrous tomentum below, margins somewhat undulate, subentire to distantly or closely crenate-dentate. Capitula ∞ in large corymbs on rather slender pedicels, florets 8-12, ray-florets up to 5; phyll. pilose to ciliate, lanceolate- to elliptic-oblong. Achenes striate, pubescent to pilose, 2-2.5 mm. long, compressed, linear; pappus-hairs very unequal, thickened at tips, up to 5 mm. long.