Small tree to 10 m tall, at times multi-stemmed. Forming a lignotuber.Bark rough to small branches stringy, grey over red-brown.Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): stem rounded in cross-section, scabrid for first few leaf pairs, soon becoming smooth; juvenile leaves opposite and sessile for very few pairs, scabrid above and below, becoming alternate, petiolate, ovate, (3)5–8.5 cm long, 2–4 cm wide, margin entire, becoming smooth, thickish, green and glossy.Adult leaves alternate, petiole 1.2–2 cm long; blade ovate or almost elliptical, 4–8.5 cm long, 1.4–3 cm wide, base oblique, margin entire, thickish, concolorous, glossy, green, side-veins at an acute angle to midrib, moderately reticulate, intramarginal vein parallel to margin, oil glands island.Inflorescence axillary unbranched, peduncles 0.4–1.3 cm long, buds in umbels of 9 to ?15, pedicels 0.2–0.5 cm long. Mature buds ovoid, ca 0.6 cm long, 0.3 cm wide, yellow, smooth (not warty), scar absent, operculum conical, stamens irregularly flexed, anthers reniform to cordate, versatile, dorsifixed, dehiscing by confluent slits, style long, stigma blunt, locules 3 or 4, the placentae each with 2 vertical ovule rows. Flowers white.Fruit pedicellate (pedicels to 0.2–0.5 cm), hemispherical, 0.3–0.5 cm long, 0.5–0.9 cm wide, disc raised or level, valves 3 or 4, slightly exserted or near rim level.Seeds blackish, 1.5–2 mm long, pyramidal or obliquely pyramidal, dorsal surface smooth, hilum terminal. Cultivated seedlings (measured at ca node 10): cotyledons reniform; (after Rule (2012): stems rounded in cross-section, stellate-hairy; leaves sessile ovate, not measured, discolorous, green above, paler on underside., stellate-hairy.
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