Mallee to 3 m tall. Forming a lignotuber. Bark smooth throughout, greyish. Branchlets lacking oil glands in the pith. Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): juvenile leaves always petiolate, alternate, elliptical to broadly ovate, 5–7 cm long, 2–3.5 cm wide, dull, green. Adult leaves alternate, petioles 1–1.5 cm long; blade elliptical to broadly lanceolate, 4–6.5 cm long, 1–1.7 cm wide, base tapering to petiole, margin entire, apex acute, concolorous, dull, green, side-veins usually greater than 45° to midrib or sometimes acute, reticulation dense, intramarginal vein close to margin, oil glands scattered intersectional, large. Inflorescence axillary unbranched, peduncles 1–1.5 cm long, buds 7 per umbel, pedicellate (pedicels 0.4–0.6 cm long). Mature buds ovoid (1.1–1.7 cm long, 0.5–0.8 cm wide), scar present, operculum conical or sometimes slightly beaked, outer stamens erect, inner stamens inflexed, anthers oblong, versatile, dorsifixed, dehiscing by longitudinal slits, style long and straight, stigma blunt, locules 3 or 4, the placentae each with 4 vertical rows of ovules. Flowers white. Fruit pedicellate (pedicels 0.5–0.8 cm long), usually hemispherical, 0.9–1.2 cm long, 1–1.4 cm wide, disc broad and flat sloping inwards slightly at the inner edge, valves 3 or 4, at rim level. Seeds rarely formed and when formed not fertile; brown, 1–2 mm long, flattened-ovoid, dorsal surface more or less smooth, hilum ventral. Fruit contain mostly chaff particles. Cultivated seedlings not seen.
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