Bracelet honey myrtle ranges from a large shrub to a small weeping tree growing to 8 m (30 ft) in height.

[2][3][4] The flowers are white, sometimes cream-coloured, rarely pink, and are arranged in cylindrical spikes on the sides of branches, often on older wood.

[6] The species was renamed Melaleuca armillaris in 1797 by James Edward Smith in Transactions of the Linnean Society of London.

[7][8] The specific epithet (armillaris) is from the Latin armilla, meaning "a bracelet", apparently in reference to the appearance of the cylinder of fruits on the branches.

[2] The two subspecies are: Subspecies armillaris occurs in coastal areas south of the Manning River district in New South Wales to far eastern Victoria, some of the Bass Strait islands including Curtis Island and the far north eastern corner of Tasmania.

Subspecies akineta is only found in the Gawler Ranges of South Australia, where it grows on ridges and granite outcrops.