The tree has a lignotuber and often a gnarled appearance in exposed areas, however, in more sheltered and lower altitude sites it grows tall and straight.

The bark is smooth, mottled grey, orange-tan to olive green over cream and is shed in flakes and the branchlets are often glaucous.

[2][3][6][7] Unlike many eucalypts, E. urnigera displays a morphological unity across the species with one important exception.

[10] The species was first formally described by the nineteenth century English botanist, Joseph Hooker, in William Jackson Hooker's London Journal of Botany in 1847, from specimens collected by the colonial botanist Ronald Campbell Gunn from Mount Wellington and Lake Echo.

It is restricted to the mountains of south eastern Tasmania, the Mount Wellington range, Mount Field and isolated pockets from Tylers Hill near Southport, 100 kilometres (62 mi) south of Hobart, north to Alma Tier near Interlaken and Mount Seymour east of Oatlands in central Tasmania and a small population on the eastern side of Maria Island off the east coast.

Typically, it is found below the range of E. coccifera (snow gum) and above the mixed and wet sclerophyll forests of the lower slopes although it will grow within both vegetation types.

Its lignotuber enables coppicing and is proposed as one of the varieties for United Kingdom firewood production.