It is similar to the broombush, Melaleuca uncinata with its needle-like leaves and heads of yellow to white flowers, but its bark is hard and fibrous rather than papery .

[2][3] Melaleuca stereophloia was first formally described in 1999 by Lyndley Craven in Australian Systematic Botany from a specimen collected 24 kilometres (10 mi) east of Koorda.

[2] Melaleuca stereophloia occurs in and between the Wooramel Station, Meekatharra, Coorow and Koorda districts[2] in the Avon Wheatbelt, Carnarvon, Coolgardie, Geraldton Sandplains, Murchison, Swan Coastal Plain and Yalgoo biogeographic regions[6] where it grows in sand, clay or loam over laterite, granite or sandstone near watercourse, lakes, saltpans and saline areas.

[2][6] Vegetation associations where M. stereophloia is the dominant species in closed shrubland near claypans are habitat for the Slender-billed thornbill, Acanthiza iredalei.

[6] Melaleuca stereophloia leaves have a high cineole content and may therefore be useful in the production of these compounds for flavourings, medicines and insect repellant.