Young plants and coppice regrowth have four-sided stems with a powdery bloom and oval to triangular leaves 40 to 70 millimetres (1.6 to 2.8 in) long and 30 to 70 mm (1.18 to 2.76 in) wide.

The mature buds are oval to pear-shaped, 6 to 9 millimetres (0.2 to 0.4 in) long and 4 to 8 mm (0.16 to 0.31 in) wide with a more or less rounded operculum that is narrower than the floral cup at the join.

The fruit is a woody, cup-shaped to barrel-shaped or hemispherical capsule 4 to 8 millimetres (0.2 to 0.3 in) long and 6 to 9 mm (0.24 to 0.35 in) wide with the valves at rim level or slightly beyond.

[4][5][6][7] Eucalyptus brevifolia was first formally described in 1859 by Ferdinand von Mueller and the description was published in the Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Botany.

[6] Snappy white gum grows on slopes and rocky hill tops in the Kimberley region of Western Australia and in nearby parts of the Northern Territory between the Victoria River and the northern Tanami Desert where it grows in shallow skeletal soils.