Described by Sir Thomas Mitchell and John Lindley in 1848, it earned its name from its bulbous trunk, which can be up to 3.5 metres (11 ft) in diameter at breast height (DBH).

Reaching around 10–25 m (33–82 ft) high, the Queensland bottle tree is deciduous, losing its leaves seasonally, between September and December.

As a drought deciduous succulent tree, much like the baobab (Adansonia) of Madagascar, B. rupestris adapts readily to cultivation, and is quite tolerant of a range of soils and temperatures.

It is a key component and emergent tree in the endangered central semi-evergreen vine thickets (also known as bottletree scrub) of the Queensland Brigalow Belt.

Trees in their native habitat are typically leafless between September and December; the timing, duration and extent of leaf drop may be affected by extremes of rainfall or drought.

[3] Panicles of creamy-yellow flowers with red markings[6] appear from September to November in the species' native range.

He came across them as he ascended Mount Abundance near present-day Roma, remarking that "The trunk bulged out in the middle like a barrel, to nearly twice the diameter at the ground, or of that at the first springing of the branches above.

[3] In his landmark Flora Australiensis, English botanist George Bentham published the first key for the nine described species of Brachychiton, and relegated them to a section of Sterculia.

[1] In 1988, Gordon Guymer of the Queensland Herbarium published a taxonomic revision of Brachychiton; he classified B. rupestris in the section Delabechea along with the related and newly described Proserpine bottle tree.

[7] The genus Brachychiton lies within an Australasian clade within the subfamily Sterculioideae (previously family Sterculiaceae) in a large broadly defined Malvaceae.

Brachychiton was for many years misconstrued as being of neuter gender—first by the genus describers Heinrich Wilhelm Schott and Stephan Endlicher and later by von Mueller and others—with the specific names then incorrectly amended.

[3] Brachychiton rupestris is found in central Queensland from latitude 22° S to 28° S, with the western limits of its range defined by the 500 mm rainfall isohyet.

It grows on the tops and slopes of hills or ridges in low hilly country, in clay, shale, or basalt soils.

It is an emergent tree in forests dominated by brigalow (Acacia harpophylla), hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii), or ooline (Cadellia pentastylis).

Other common species include broad-leaved bottle tree (Brachychiton australis) and belah (Casuarina cristata).

[19] Although the species status under Queensland's Nature Conservation Act is "least concern",[20] it is an emergent tree species in an endangered ecosystem known as "semi-evergreen vine thickets of the Brigalow Belt (North and South) and Nandewar bioregions", listed under the Commonwealth EPBC Act,[21] and is declining across its range.

[22] The species is conserved within its natural habitat in a number of National Parks including Auburn River,[23] Benarkin,[22] Bunya Mountains,[24] Coalstoun Lakes,[25] Dipperu,[3] Good Night Scrub,[26] Humboldt,[27] Isla Gorge[28] and Tregole.

[5] Aboriginal people made use of the trees through eating the roots of young plants and by consuming secretions from the trunk that were induced by wounds.

[4] Stem cuttings of semi-mature growth can be taken in late summer and require the application of rooting hormones and bottom heat.