Mostly small shrub to about 0.5 m tall but up to 2 m or more. Leaves alternate, crowded, ovate to oblong, 3-5 mm long, 2-3 mm wide. Flowers solitary, often in opposite pairs with distinctive claw-like staminal bundles bending inwards, pink to mauve and soon fading; spring to summer. Fruit capsules 1-2, to about 8 mm wide.
WA.
M. glaberrima F.Muell. from WA has lilac flowers fading to pink or even white, and semi-cylindrical incurved and crowded leaves to about 1 cm long. M. thymifolia Sm., Thyme Honey-myrtle, from Qld and NSW also has claw-like pinkish mauve flowers but on old wood and with longer opposite leaves 0.5-1.5 cm long, 2-3 mm wide; it is available as: 'Cotton Candy' which has deep mauve-pink flowers; 'Little Beauty' which has a dwarf, compact habit with deep purple flowers; 'Pink Lace' with pale pink flowers; and 'White Lace' with white flowers.
Source: (2002). Myrtaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 3. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 2. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.