It is a dense, prickly shrub with heart-shaped leaves, stamens that are joined in unusually long claw-like bundles, and distinctive, warty fruits.

The fruit are almost spherical, knobbly, woody capsules that are larger than those of most other melaleucas at about 10 mm (0.4 in) diameter.

[2][3] Melaleuca cardiophylla was first formally described in 1859 by Ferdinand von Mueller in Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae from a specimen found "at Port Gregory by Augustus Oldfield".

[6] This melaleuca occurs in areas close to the coast between Perth, the Exmouth district and the Pilbara in the Carnarvon, Gascoyne, Geraldton Sandplains, Swan Coastal Plain and Yalgoo biogeographic regions.

[9] Melaleuca cardiophylla is listed as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife.