Mallee or small tree to 10 m tall. Forming a lignotuber.Bark rough to small branches in trees, stringy, grey or brown; in mallees shortly fibrous to flaky on stems with branches smooth.Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): stem rounded in cross-section, scabrid at first, becoming smooth; juvenile leaves opposite and sessile for a few pairs, scabrid above and below, becoming alternate, petiolate, ovate, 3.5–8.5 cm long, 3–4 cm wide, margin entire, becoming smooth, green and glossy.Adult leaves alternate, petiole 1–2.5 cm long; blade broadly lanceolate to lanceolate to falcate, 7–12 cm long, 1.5–4 cm wide, base oblique or tapering to petiole, margin entire, concolorous, glossy, green, side-veins at an acute or wider angle to midrib, sparsely reticulate, intramarginal vein parallel to and well removed from margin, oil glands island or obscure.Inflorescence axillary unbranched, peduncles 0.5–1.8 cm long, buds in umbels of 9 to 15, pedicels 0.2–0.5 cm long. Mature buds clavate to ovoid, 0.5–0.6 cm long, 0.3–0.5 cm wide, green to yellow, smooth (not pronouncedly warty), scar absent, operculum conical to rounded, stamens irregularly flexed, anthers reniform to cordate, versatile, dorsifixed, dehiscing by (usually) confluent slits, style long, locules 3 or 4, the placentae each with 2 vertical ovule rows. Flowers white.Fruit pedicellate (pedicels to 0.1–0.5 cm), hemispherical or truncate-globose, 0.4–0.9 cm long, 0.7–1.2 cm wide, disc raised or level, valves 3 or 4, slightly exserted or near rim level.Seeds brown to reddish brown, 1.8–3 mm long, pyramidal or obliquely pyramidal, dorsal surface smooth or very slightly pitted, hilum terminal. Cultivated seedlings (measured at ca node 10): cotyledons reniform; stems rounded in cross-section, stellate-hairy; leaves sessile for ca 8 to 10 nodes, opposite for ca 5 to 6 nodes then alternate, lower leaves elliptic but by node ca 6 becoming ovate, 3–8.5 cm long, 1.5–4 cm wide, base amplexicaul becoming rounded to tapering at upper nodes, discolorous, bright green above, stellate-hairy.
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