Corymbia ptychocarpa is a tree that typically grows to a height of 4.5 to 20 metres (15 to 66 ft) and has thick, rough, tessellated, brownish bark on the trunk and branches.

[2][3][4][5][6][7] Swamp bloodwood was first formally described in 1859 by Ferdinand von Mueller, who gave it the name Eucalyptus ptychocarpa and published the description in the Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Botany.

[8][9] In 1995 Ken Hill and Lawrence Alexander Sidney Johnson changed the name to Corymbia ptychocarpa.

[5][10] In the same paper, Hill and Johnson described two subspecies and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census: Corymbia ptychocarpa is found from the Kimberley region of Western Australia and through the Top End of the Northern Territory to near Doomadgee in far north-western Queensland.

[2][3][7][13] Subspecies aptycha is restricted to the Top End between the Cobourg Peninsula, Yirrkala and El Sharana in Arnhem Land.