 The type collection was made by George Maxwell near the Phillips River and its tributaries.The specific epithet ("grossa") is from the Latin "grossus", meaning 'thick' or 'coarse', referring to the leaves, buds and fruit.Coarse-leaved mallee grows around granite rocks and in thickets on flat and slightly undulating ground from near Newdegate to the south and east of Norseman in the Coolgardie, Esperance Plains and Mallee biogeographic regions.