Wikstroemia furcata is a shrub or small tree that can grow up to 4.5 meters tall. The stems of the young branches are rusty tomentose or sometimes have scattered hairs, and rarely are they glabrous. The leaves are simple and opposite, with broadly elliptic or narrowly ovate blades measuring (5–)7–12(–20) cm long and (1.8–)3–5(–9) cm wide. The leaf apex is acute or acuminate, sometimes obtuse, and the base is broadly rounded, cuneate, or bluntly tapering. The surfaces are glabrous or have scattered hairs along the midrib on the lower surface, with pilose or glabrous petioles. The leaves are dark green on the upper surface and lighter on the lower surface, chartaceous. The margins are entire, and the veins are pinnate. Petioles are 4–10 mm long, either pilose or glabrous. Stipules are absent. The flowers are borne on peduncles 3–7 mm long, slightly pilose or glabrous, with a stout rachis that elongates up to 50 mm or more in fruit and is densely hirsute and usually repeatedly forked. Pedicels are 1–3 mm long and tomentose. The flowers are bisexual (perfect), greenish or yellowish green, and typically pubescent, becoming glabrate. The calyx tube is 7.5–12 mm long, with outer lobes 2–4 mm long and 1.2–3.5 mm wide, and inner lobes 2–3.7 mm long and 1.2–3.5 mm wide. There are no petals (corolla absent). There are eight stamens, with the lower whorl included and the upper whorl sometimes shortly exserted. The ovary is superior, 1-celled, with solitary and pendulous ovules. The fruit is bright red or orangish red, ellipsoid, 10–15 mm long, and 5.5–8 mm in diameter; drupaceous, with seeds that lack an endosperm. It is found scattered in hala (Pandanus tectorius) forest and is common in diverse mesic forest environments between 380-1,220 meters.