The axisymmetrization of a two-dimensional non-uniform elliptic vortex is studied in terms of the growth of palinstrophy, the squared vorticity gradient. First, it is pointed out that the equation for palinstrophy growth, if written in terms of the strain rate tensor, has a similar form to that of enstrophy growth in three-dimensions – the vortex-stretching equation. Then palinstrophy production is analysed, particularly for non-uniform elliptic vortices. It is shown analytically and verified numerically that a non-uniform elliptic vortex in general has a quadrupole structure for palinstrophy production, and that in the positive production regions, vortex filaments are ejected following the gradient enhancement process for vorticity. Numerical simulations are conducted for two different initial conditions, compact support and Gaussian vorticity distributions. These are characterized by distinctly different features of filament ejection and energy spectra. For both cases, the total palinstrophy production is a good indicator of the development of small-scale vorticity. In particular for the compact support case, a possible intermittency mechanism in the filament ejection process is proposed.