It has rough, tessellated bark on the trunk and branches, a crown of sessile juvenile leaves, flower buds in groups of three or seven, pale creamy yellow flowers and urn-shaped fruit.

Corymbia ferruginea is a straggly tree that typically grows to a height of 3–12 m (9.8–39.4 ft) and forms a lignotuber.

[3][4][5][6][7] Rusty bloodwood was first formally described in 1843 by Johannes Conrad Schauer in Walpers' book Repertorium Botanices Systematicae and given the name Eucalyptus ferruginea.

[8][9] In 1995, Ken Hill and Lawrie Johnson changed the name to Corymbia ferruginea.

[5][10] In the same journal, Hill and Johnson described two subspecies and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census: Corymbia ferruginea grows in open forest and woodland on shallow, sandstone soils or deep sands from west of Fitzroy Crossing in Western Australia then east through the northern part of the Northern Territory to south of Burketown in north-west Queensland.