Corymbia dunlopiana is a tree that typically grows to a height of and often has twisted irregular branches. The bark is rough, tessellated or flaky and grey-brown over reddish-brown. The branchlets, leaves and flower-buds are all rough and hairy. Young plants and
coppice regrowth have sessile, heart-shaped to elliptical leaves that are long and wide with a rounded or stem-clasping base. The crown of the tree has only juvenile leaves that are sessile, heart-shaped or lance-shaped to oblong, long and wide and arranged in opposite pairs with a stem-clasping base. The leaves are the same shade of dull, yellow-green, light green to grey-green on both sides. The flower buds are arranged in leaf
axils or on the ends of branchlets on a branched
peduncle up to long, each branch of the peduncle with one, three or (rarely) seven buds on
pedicels long. Mature buds are pear-shaped, long and wide with a beaked
operculum. Flowering has been observed in most months but mostly from the end of the
dry season to early in the
wet season. ==Taxonomy and naming==