It has crowded, aromatic, elliptical leaves, white flowers about 15 mm (0.59 in) in diameter and fruit that remain on the plants until it is burned or dies.

Leptospermum nitudum is a densely foliaged, compact shrub that typically grows to a height of 2 m (6 ft 7 in) and has scaly bark.

Flowering occurs in January and the fruit is a capsule 6–10 mm (0.24–0.39 in) long with the sepals attached and that remains on the plant at maturity.

[3][4][5] Leptospermum nitidum was first formally described in 1856 by English botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker in The Botany of the Antarctic voyage of H.M.

[8] Shiny tea-tree grows in cold, moist, heath and is widespread in Tasmania, including on Cape Barren Island.