It has mostly smooth bark with some persistent slabs of old bark at the base, juvenile leaves with one glaucous side, glossy, lance-shaped adult leaves, warty flower buds in groups of three, white flowers and hemispherical to conical fruit.Eucalyptus globulus subsp.

Young plants and coppice regrowth have stems that are more or less square in cross-section, with a prominent wing on each corner.

[2][3][4] Southern blue gum was first formally described by Joseph Henry Simmonds in the book Trees from other lands for shelter and timber in New Zealand: Eucalypts and given the name Eucalyptus bicostata.

[2] Southern blue gum grows in open forest in mountainous, largely inland country in New South Wales and Victoria.

It is found between the Carrai National Park on the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales and the ranges of eastern Victoria.