It is a low-growing to erect or sprawling shrub with sessile, oblong leaves, and pale to bright yellow flowers with 80 to 135 stamens.

The flowers are arranged in pairs in up to sixteen leaf axils on a short peduncle with bracteoles 2–3 mm (0.079–0.118 in) long.

[2][3][4][5] Hypocalymma xanthopetalum was first formally described in 1860 by Ferdinand von Mueller in his Fragmenta phytographiae Australiae from specimens collected by Augustus Oldfield.

[8] Yellow myrtle grows in sandplains in heath, shrubland or woodland between Geraldton and north of Muchea in the Avon Wheatbelt, Geraldton Sandplains and Swan Coastal Plain bioregions of south-western Western Australia.

It requires excellent drainage and prefers a position in full sun or partial shade.