Hakea pritzelli is an erect, dense, spreading shrub typically growing to a height of 1 to 2.5 metres (3.3 to 8.2 ft). It blooms from July to August and produces sweetly scented red-purple flowers with a light green style in clusters in leaf axils or along stems on old wood. The leaves are obovate, thick, rigid and stem clasping with a prominent sharp point. The pale green leaves vary from being entire to shallowly divided having 3, 5 or 9 small very sharp, prickly teeth. The fruit are 20 mm (0.8 in) long and 9–10 mm (0.4–0.4 in) wide with corky spines on the external surface.^[2][3]

Hakea pritzelii was first formally described in 1904 Ludwig Diels and the description was published in Botanische Jahrbücher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie.^[4][5] The species was named after the German botanist Ernst Georg Pritzel who travelled with Ludwig Diels collecting specimens of Western Australia flora.^[3]

Hakea pritzelii grows from Cranbrook and the Stirling Range National Park to Gnowangerup in heath and scrubland in white sand. Often found in low lying seasonally wet areas. A good habitat plant due to its dense prickly habit.^[3]

Although Hakea pritzelii has a restricted range, it is considered "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife.^[2]