It is an understory tree in karri forest but also occurs as a stunted shrub in places like Bluff Knoll in the Stirling Range.

As with other members of the family Casuarinaceae, the foliage consists of wiry green branchlets called cladodes with rings of minute leaf scales.

The fruiting structure is a woody cone, shaped like a short cylinder with its diameter roughly equal to or slightly greater than its length.

[4] This species was first formally described in 1873 by George Bentham in Flora Australiensis from specimens collected by James Drummond near Cape Riche, Western Australia.

[8] Karri oak is restricted to the southwest of Western Australia in the Esperance Plains, Jarrah Forest and Warren biogeographical regions.