It has smooth bark, narrow lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds arranged in groups of between nine and fifteen, white flowers and almost spherical fruit with a small opening.Eucalyptus buprestium is a mallee that typically grows to a height of 1 to 6 metres (3 to 20 ft) and forms a lignotuber.

It has smooth greenish brown and cream-coloured bark that ages to grey and is shed in ribbons.

[3][4][5] Eucalyptus buprestium was first formally described by the botanist Ferdinand von Mueller in 1862 and the description was published in his book Fragmenta phytographiae Australiae.

[4] The species is part of the Eucalyptus subgenus series Diversiformae, a group of mallees that all have adult leaves held erect, buds with a single unscarred operculum and pyramidal seeds.

[4][8] Apple mallee is found on coastal and near-coastal sandplains and ridge tops along the south coast in the Great Southern region of Western Australia between Albany in the west, Mount Barker in the north and Jerramungup in the east where it grows in gravelly sandy-clay soils.