Tree to 90 m tall; bark rough to the small branches, stringy. Juvenile leaves petiolate, opposite for few pairs then alternate, broadly ovate, oblique, pendulous, to 19 cm long, 8 cm wide, glossy, green; adult leaves petiolate, alternate, broadly lanceolate, oblique, 10–13 cm long, 1.5–3.5 cm wide, concolorous, glossy, green; reticulation moderate, with numerous island oil glands or glands irregular or obscure. Inflorescences axillary, unbranched; peduncles to 1.5 cm long, 7–15(or more)-flowered; buds pedicellate, clavate, to 0.7 cm long, 0.4 cm diam., no scar (single operculum); operculum hemispherical; stamens irregularly flexed; anthers dorsifixed, reniform; ovules in 2 vertical rows; flowers white. Fruit pedicellate, barrel-shaped or truncate-globose, to 1.1 cm long, 0.9 cm diam.; disc descending; valves 3 or 4, below rim; seed dark brown, glossy, smooth, pyramidal but distorted by one curved face, hilum terminal. Flowers Dec.–Mar.

Wim, GleP, Brid, VVP, VRiv, GipP, OtP, WaP, Gold, CVU, GGr, DunT, NIS, EGL, EGU, WPro, HSF, HNF, OtR, Strz, MonT, HFE, VAlp. Also SA, Qld, NSW, Tas. Widely distributed across southern Victoria and extending inland to the northern fall of the Great Dividing Range, and the mountains of south and east Gippsland. Mainly a species of cool, well-watered mountain forests, but also common in sandy heaths of the Otway coast west to South Australia.

Hybridizes with E. regnans (see notes under that species) and possibly E. macrorhyncha (see E. ×brevirostris).

Danthonia pilosa var. paleacea