It has egg-shaped to narrow elliptical leaves with a blunt tip, white or pink flowers and hairy, flat-topped fruit that falls from the plant shortly after the seeds are released.

The flowers are white or pink, mostly 5–10 mm (0.20–0.39 in) wide and arranged singly or in pairs on a short side shoot.

[2][3] This species was first formally described in 1932 by Edwin Cheel who gave it the name Leptospermum semibaccatum in the Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, from specimens collected by C.T.White on Moreton Island.

[4][5] In 2023, Peter Gordon Wilson transferred the species to the genus Gaudium as G. parvifolium in the journal Taxon.

[1][6] This tea-tree grows in sandy soil in poorly drained-coastal heath between Bundaberg in Queensland and Forster in New South Wales.