Eucalyptus jacksonii is a tree that typically grows to a height of and has thick, rough, stringy and furrowed grey-brown or red-brown bark. The bases of very old, heavily buttressed trees can have a circumference up to . While some references estimate red tingle reach heights of up to , the tallest known living tree stands at tall. The
crown is dense and compact, forming a heavy canopy. Young plants and
coppice regrowth have broadly egg-shaped leaves that are dark green on the upper surface, paler below, long and wide. Adult leaves are arranged alternately, dark green on the upper surface, paler below, egg-shaped to lance-shaped, long and wide on a
petiole long. The flower buds are arranged in leaf axils in groups of seven on an unbranched
peduncle long, the individual buds on
pedicels long. Mature buds are an elongated oval, long and wide with a conical
operculum. Flowering occurs between January and March and the flowers are white. The fruit is a woody shortened spherical to barrel-shaped
capsule long and wide on a pedicel long and with the valves enclosed below the level of the rim. The heartwood is deep pink to reddish brown with a green-wood density of about , and air-dried density about . The red tingle is often compared to the other two species - the yellow tingle (
Eucalyptus guilfoylei) and Rate's tingle (
Eucalyptus brevistylis) are smaller. The red tingle is more closely related to Rate's tingle, both of which belong to the subgenus
Eucalyptus. ==Taxonomy and naming==