"this description applies" is a correct and usable sentence in written English.
You can use it when you want to point out that a certain description is relevant to a situation. For example: "This dress is perfect for the event - its bright colors and festive patterns make it a great party dress. This description applies to the dress I'm wearing too."
This description applies equally well to Ms. Hunter herself, who best resembles a petite, sneaker-clad whirlwind.
Rorem's scores seem, by comparison, modest and naïve, but this description applies only to their surface, and not to their emotional or psychological import.
This description applies to Japan as well.
The problem is that this description applies to many, if not most, fictional characters.
This description applies to no DJ more than it does Steve Aoki who, as reported widely this morning, is currently being sued by a fan who claims he broke her neck at one of his 2012 shows.
This description applies to the Resistance which in last week's elections proved that pussy hats deliver but also to the Tea Party, which coalesced in the first year of the Obama administration and then seized control of the House, and the Republican Party, come midterms.
Oh, that description applies to you?
We describe the control:experimental setting, although the description applies also to the one sample design.
Within each of the four levels, respondents choose one of three ratings of the degree to which that description applies.
Within each of the four levels, respondents are asked to choose the degree to which that description applies.
This general description applies to a considerable number of applications where almost all combinations of LM (phase-contrast or fluorescence on living or fixed samples) and EM (immuno-EM, scanning EM, transmission EM, cryo-EM, tomography) have been used during the last few decades [1].
