The fruit is a sessile, cup-shaped or shortened spherical capsule 3–5 mm (0.12–0.20 in) long and wide with the valves near rim level.

[2][3][4][5][6] Eucalyptus stellulata was first formally described in 1828 by the Swiss botanist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle in his book Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis.

The specific epithet (stellulata) is derived from a Latin word meaning "little star" and refers to the appearance of the clustered flower buds.

[5][7] The Australian Oxford Dictionary gives the origin of "sally" and "sallee" as British dialect variants of "sallow", meaning "a willow tree, especially one of a low-growing or shrubby kind".

[9] Black sallee occurs from near Tenterfield in New South Wales and southwards along the Great Dividing Range to the eastern highlands of Victoria.