It has smooth bark, thick lance-shaped to oblong adult leaves, single flower buds arranged in leaf axils, red to pink flowers and square, prominently winged fruit.

[2][3][4][5][6][7] Eucalyptus tetraptera was first formally described by the Russian botanist Nikolai Turczaninow in 1849 in the journal, Bulletin de la Société Impériale des Naturalistes de Moscou from specimens collected in 1848 by James Drummond.

[5][8][9] The specific epithet (tetraptera) is from ancient Greek words meaning "four" and "winged" referring to the fruit of this species.

[6] The distribution of the square-fruited mallee is limited to coastal sandplains where it is also found among granite outcrops of southern Western Australia, north from the Stirling Ranges and south to around Albany east to Israelite Bay in the Great Southern and Goldfields-Esperance regions where it grows in white or grey sandy soils in heath.

[3][7] This eucalypt is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife.