As with the other subspecies, this one is notable for its showy flowers which are usually a shade of pink to mauve but its foliage and fruits are also attractive features.

corrugata is an erect, woody shrub growing up to 3 metres (10 ft) high and wide with glabrous branchlets.

There are many distinct oil glands and a mid-vein visible on the lower surface of the leaves[1][2][3] The flowers are a shade of white to pink or mauve and are arranged in spikes on the sides of the branches.

[4][5] In 1990, in a review of the species by Kirsten Cowley, Frances Quinn, Bryan Barlow and Lyndley Craven in Australian Systematic Botany,[6] Melaleuca corrugata was recognised as Melaleuca fulgens subsp.

[7] The specific epithet (corrugata) refers to the wrinkled sides of the fruiting capsules.