Tall shrub or tree to 8 m tall, fire tolerant. Bark hard, fissured, grey. Stems pale rusty-pubescent, glabrescent. Leaves alternate, often crowded; petiole 5-12 mm long; lamina narrowly elliptic, 5-20 cm long, 6-12 mm wide, acute; margins slightly recurved, entire; upper surface glossy; lower surface pale, with a row of short, stiff brown hairs each side of midrib. Inflorescence 6-10 cm long; involucral bracts ovoid to linear, to 5 mm long, persistent until flowering, ferruginous-velvety. Flowers pale yellow, including styles. Perianth 25-29 mm long including limb of c. 4 mm, closely pubescent outside, glabrous inside. Pistil straight or slightly curved, 30-34 mm long, glabrous; pollen presenter scarcely thickened. Old flowers soon falling. Follicles up to c. 50, narrowly elliptic, 8-12 mm long, 5-9 mm high, 4-5 mm wide; valves semi-elliptic, smooth, tomentose, glabrescent. Seed obovate, 14-16 mm long; seed body cuneate, 8-10 mm long, 2-3 mm wide.
Usually on hillsides but also on creek banks and flats; in sand, usually granitic, in woodland and forest.
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