Flowering occurs in most months of the year and is followed by fruit which are woody, cup-shaped to cylindrical capsules, 3–4 mm (0.1–0.2 in) in diameter and loosely spaced along the branches.

[5][3][6] Melaleuca argentea was first formally described in 1918 by William Fitzgerald in "Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Western Australia" from specimens he collected from the "Isdell, Charnley, Fitzroy, Ord, Denham Rivers, etc.

[5] Melaleuca argentea is known as mardderr in the Kunwinjku language[4] and kumardderr, (the Goomadeer River) means "at the silver-leaved paperbark" and takes its name from this tree.

[8] Silver cajuput occurs in the Kimberley district of Western Australia, the Top End of the Northern Territory and north Queensland.

[3] Forests of M. argentea occur along swampy drainage lines in similar niches to Melaleuca quinquenervia which they displace in the far northern coastal portions of the wet tropics bioregion.