There are buttress roots to a height of 3 m (9.8 ft) and the outer bark is silvery grey and thin, with small pustules.

The leaves are dull green with prominent veins, regularly spaced teeth on the edges and turn red before falling.

[2][3][4] Elaeocarpus kirtonii was first formally described in 1886 by Frederick Manson Bailey in A Synopsis of the Queensland Flora, from an unpublished description by Ferdinand von Mueller.

[5][6] The specific epithet (kirtonii) honours W. Kirton, who collected samples of the tree at Bulli in 1885 for Ferdinand von Mueller.

[4] Silver quandong grows from near Milton (35° S) in New South Wales to Eungella National Park (20° S) in tropical Queensland.