The leaves on young plants and coppice regrowth are in opposite pairs, broadly lance-shaped to egg-shaped, 40–110 mm (2–4 in) long, 23–47 mm (0.9–2 in) wide and the same dull bluish green on both sides.

[4][5][6] The purple-flowered mallee box was first formally described in 1974 by Clifford David Boomsma who gave it the name Eucalyptus lansdowneana subsp.

albopurpurea and published the description in the South Australian Naturalist from a specimen collected by Reginald Allan Dorward.

[7][8] In 2000, Dean Nicolle raised it to species status as Eucalyptus albopurpurea.

[5] Eucalyptus albopurpurea is only known from Kangaroo Island and the southern tip of the Eyre Peninsula where it grows on sandhills near the ocean and around seasonally wet areas.