The growth habit varies, at higher exposed altitudes it is a prostrate plant up to 1 m (3 ft 3 in) high.

It has small, blunt, shiny dark green, oval to elliptic shaped leaves, 2–9 mm (0.079–0.354 in) long.

[4][5][6] Leptospermum rupestre was first formally described in 1840 by botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker and the description was published in Icones Plantarum.

[7][8] Robert Brown observed it growing on rocky outcrops on Mount Wellington and nearby mountains.

[7] This species is endemic to Tasmania, found growing in a sunny situation on light to medium soils.