Mallee; bark rough on lower part of trunk, fibrous, usually loose. Juvenile leaves shortly petiolate, linear, spirally arranged, later leaves decussate, linear to narrowly lanceolate, to 8 cm long, 0.8 cm wide; adult leaves petiolate, alternate, narrowly lanceolate, 7–10 cm long, 0.8–1.5 cm wide, concolorous, glossy green; side veins weakly pinnate, fine; oil glands very numerous, round, island. Inflorescences axillary, unbranched; peduncles slightly flattened, to 1.3 cm long, 11- or 13-flowered; buds pedicellate, oblong or ovoid, to 0.8 cm long, 0.3 cm diam., scar present; operculum obtuse, often narrower than hypanthium, rarely acute; stamens irregularly flexed; anthers scarcely versatile, basifixed, globoid; ovules in 4 vertical rows; flowers white or creamy-white. Fruit pedicellate, truncate-globose, to 0.6 cm long, 0.6 cm diam.; disc vertically descending; valves 3 or 4, enclosed, surmounted by semi-persistent, fragile, style remnants; seed grey, flattened-ellipsoid, smooth with shallow, longitudinal furrows, hilum ventral. Flowers Jan.–Jul.
LoM, MuM, Wim, VVP, VRiv, MSB, RobP, MuF, GipP, HSF. Common in mallee north from the Little Desert.
Formerly confused with E. socialis F. Muell. ex Miq. through misinterpretation of the type. Eucalyptus oleosa is readily distinguished in the field by the glossy green leaves, and in the glasshouse by the dense, spiral linear seedling leaves.
