It has rough, fibrous to flaky bark on the trunk and larger branches, smooth grey bark on the thinner branches, lance-shaped to curved or almost linear leaves, flower buds in groups of eleven to twenty or more, white flowers and cup-shaped, hemispherical or shortened spherical fruit.

Eucalyptus radiata is a tree that typically grows to a height of 10–50 m (33–164 ft) and forms a lignotuber.

[3][6][7][8] Eucalyptus radiata was first formally described in 1828 by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle in his book Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis, from an unpublished description by Franz Sieber.

[9][10] In 1927, William Blakely described Eucalyptus robertsonii in Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales.

The names of the two subspecies are accepted by the Australian Plant Census: Narrow-leaved peppermint grows in forest and woodland, usually in cooler or wetter habitats.