The mallee tree will grow to 5 to 10 metres (16 to 33 ft)[3][4] in height, it has an upright habit and can have a single or multiple stems with a lignotuber at the base of the trunk.

It mostly forms a dense canopy of thin dark green leaves that have conspicuous oil glands.

[5][6][7] The species was first formally described by the botanist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle in 1828 and published in Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis.

[5] It grows well in well-drained soils over laterite or limestone as part of a dense mallee shrubland community.

[11] On Kangaroo Island, there were over 100 stills for the production of eucalyptus oil from the narrow-leaf mallee, however, the distillation industry went into decline after the 1930s due to the greater profitability of sheep farming.