Tree to 10 m tall. Forming a lignotuber.Bark smooth throughout, white or sometimes cream to very pale grey, powdery.Branchlets lack oil glands in the pith; scabrid or ± smooth.Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): stems rounded in cross-section, setose with bristle-glands; juvenile leaves sessile, rarely with a petiole to 0.1 cm long, opposite, cordate, 2–4.5 cm long, 0.8–2.1 cm wide, amplexicaul, apex pointed, margin entire, greyish green, scabrid above and below. Crown of juvenile opposite, sessile or with petioles to 0.4 cm long; blade cordate, rarely lanceolate, 3–8 cm long, 0.8–2.7 cm wide, base amplexicaul, margin entire, apex pointed, concolorous, dull, grey-green to pale green, usually scabrid but older leaves may be weathered to ± smooth, side-veins at more than 45° to midrib, reticulation very dense, intramarginal vein present, oil glands absent.Inflorescence axillary compound, peduncles rounded to angular, 0.1–0.2 cm long, buds 3 per umbel, pedicels 0.1–0.9 cm long. Mature buds obovoid to pyriform (0.4–0.6 cm long, 0.4–0.5 cm wide), scar present (outer operculum shed during bud development), operculum flattened and very shallow, stamens usually inflexed rarely a few stamens irregularly flexed, all fertile, anthers oblong, dorsifixed, versatile, dehiscing by longitudinal slits, style long and straight, stigma ± tapering, locules 3, the placentae each with ovules not arranged in clear rows. Flowers white.Fruit pedicellate (pedicels 0.2–0.9 cm long), cupular to cylindrical or barrel-shaped, 0.5–1.1 cm long, 0.6–1.1 cm wide, thin-walled, smooth, disc descending vertically, valves 3, enclosed.Seeds brown to reddish brown, 3–6 mm long, flattened to saucer-shaped, dorsal surface smooth, hilum ventral. Cultivated seedlings (measured at ca node 10): cotyledons large, orbicular to reniform; stems rounded in cross-section, setose with bristle-glands; leaves sessile or petiolate (petioles to 0.2 cm), opposite for 12+ nodes, cordate or ovate, 3.5–5.5 cm long, (1.3)1.8–3.3 cm wide, base amplexicaul, lobed or sometimes rounded by node 10, apex pointed, dull, green, concolorous or slightly discolorous, sparsely setose with bristle-glands on both sides.
Home