It has smooth greyish bark, sometimes with rough flaky bark near the base, lance-shaped to curved adult leaves, flower buds in groups of three, whitish flowers and cylindrical to barrel-shaped fruit.Eucalyptus gittinsii is a mallee that typically grows to a height of 2–5 m (6 ft 7 in – 16 ft 5 in) and forms a lignotuber.

The flower buds are arranged in leaf axils in groups of three on a peduncle 5–18 mm (0.20–0.71 in) long, the individual buds on pedicels 2–8 mm (0.079–0.315 in) long.

The specific epithet honours Clifford Halliday Gittins (1904 - 1995) for his assistance to the National Herbarium of New South Wales.

[4][6][7] In 2000, Dean Nicolle described two subspecies and the names have been accepted by the Australian Plant Census:[8] The northern sandplain mallee is found along the west coast of Western Australia on sand plains, sand dune and ridges in the Mid West and Wheatbelt regions of Western Australia where it grows in sandy soils often with lateritic gravel.

[3][12] Both subspecies of E. gittinsii are classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife.