Northern White Gum

Eucalyptus brevifolia is a tree that typically grows to a height of 10 metres (33 ft) and forms a lignotuber. The bark is smooth, white and powdery. Young plants and coppice regrowth have four-sided stems with a powdery bloom and oval to triangular leaves 40 to 70 millimetres (1.6 to 2.8 in) long and 30 to 70 mm (1.18 to 2.76 in) wide. Adult leaves are mostly lance-shaped, the same dull blue-grey on both sides, 50 to 110 millimetres (2.0 to 4.3 in) long and 150 to 280 mm (5.91 to 11.02 in) wide on a petiole 15 to 25 millimetres (0.6 to 1.0 in) long. The flower buds are arranged in groups of seven in leaf axils on a peduncle 3 to 9 millimetres (0.1 to 0.4 in) long, the individual buds on a pedicel that is sessile or up to 3 millimetres (0.1 in) long. The mature buds are oval to pear-shaped, 6 to 9 millimetres (0.2 to 0.4 in) long and 4 to 8 mm (0.16 to 0.31 in) wide with a more or less rounded operculum that is narrower than the floral cup at the join. Flowering occurs between March and August and the flowers are white or creamy yellow. The fruit is a woody, cup-shaped to barrel-shaped or hemispherical capsule 4 to 8 millimetres (0.2 to 0.3 in) long and 6 to 9 mm (0.24 to 0.35 in) wide with the valves at rim level or slightly beyond.

Snappy white gum grows on slopes and rocky hill tops in the Kimberley region of Western Australia and in nearby parts of the Northern Territory between the Victoria River and the northern Tanami Desert where it grows in shallow skeletal soils.