Mallet to 5 m tall. Lacking a lignotuber. Crown restricted to upper part of branches.Bark smooth throughout, grey to silvery grey and salmon, shedding in irregular strips.Branchlets square in cross-section; lacking oil glands in the pith. Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): not seen.Adult leaves coarse, thick, usually alternate, petioles 3.8–4.5 cm long; blade lanceolate to oblong, 14–23.8 cm long, 4.2–6.2 cm wide, base tapering to petiole or rounded, margin entire, apex pointed, concolorous, glossy, green, side-veins greater than 45° to midrib, reticulation dense, intramarginal vein remote from margin, oil glands intersectional, few or not visible. Inflorescence axillary unbranched, peduncles rigidly down-turned, with broadly curved wings (length unknown); bud solitary, sessile. Mature buds cuboid with 4 broad wings at the angles (5–6.5 cm long, 3–6 cm wide), hypanthium red tapering a bit basally, scar present (outer operculum shed early), operculum pyramidal (1.5–3 cm long), stamens inflexed, filaments glandular, anthers cuboid, versatile, sub-basifixed, dehiscing by longitudinal slits, style long and straight, stigma tapered, locules 4, number of ovule rows unknown. Flowers red to pink. Fruit on rigidly down-turned peduncles, sessile; cuboid and prominently winged, 5.6–6.8 cm long, 4.8–6 cm wide (including wings), disc descending vertically, valves 4, enclosed. Seeds blackish, 3–4 mm long, shortly pyramidal, with prominent ridges continuous with conspicuous encircling marginal flange, dorsal surface shallowly reticulate, hilum terminal.Cultivated seedlings (measured at ca node 10) : cotyledons reniform; stems rounded to square in cross-section; leaves always petiolate, opposite for 2 to 4 nodes then alternate, elliptic, 9–11 cm long, 4–5.5 cm wide, dull green. (Data from Hopper & McQuoid 2009).
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