The type of bark and the proportion of juvenile, intermediate and adult leaves in the crown of mature plants varies with subspecies.

It has rich, reddish brown, fibrous bark that in several subspecies is shed in curling "minni ritchi" patches about 10 cm (3.9 in) wide.

Silver mallee is found in an area in the Goldfields-Esperance and Wheatbelt region of Western Australia where it grows in sandy, clay or loam soils amongst granite outcrops.

Subspecies crucis (silver mallee) is also listed as "vulnerable" under the Australian Government Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.

It is commonly used as a windbreak, a street tree, for its decorative fruit, for erosion control, and as a honey producing or bird nesting plant.