The heads or daisy-like "flowers" are arranged singly on the ends of side branches and are 9–17 mm (0.35–0.67 in) in diameter and sessile.

Flowering occurs from June to October and the fruit is a glandular achene, the pappus with 32 to 47 bristles.

[2][3][4] Snow bush was first formally described in 1804 by Étienne Pierre Ventenat who gave it the name Aster microphyllus in his book Jardin de la Malmaison.

[5][6] In 1916, Joseph Maiden and Ernst Betche changed the name to Olearia microphylla in A Census of New South Wales Plants.

[8] Olearia microphylla is widespread from south-eastern Queensland through eastern New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory and as far south as the Queanbeyan district, growing in shrubland, heath and sclerophyll forest, where it is associated with such species as Eucalyptus sieberi and Eucalyptus sclerophylla.