Small tree to c. 10 m tall. Forming a lignotuber.Bark smooth, new bark pale orange, maturing to mottled grey, becoming granular with age,.Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): stems round in cross-section, not glaucous; juvenile leaves always petiolate, alternate, ovate, 6–12 cm long, 4–7 cm wide, base tapering to rounded, light green.Adult leaves alternate, petioles 2–4 cm long; blade lanceolate, 10–15 cm long, 2.5–4.5 cm wide, base tapering to petiole, margin entire, apex pointed, concolorous, dull green, side-veins acute or at a wider angle than 45° to the midrib, reticulation dense, intramarginal vein present, oil glands mostly island or absent.Inflorescence axillary unbranched, peduncles 0.8–2.2 cm long, buds 7 per umbel, sessile to shortly pedicellate (pedicels 0–0.2 cm long). Mature buds obovoid to globular (0.5–0.6 cm long, 0.5 cm wide), scar present, operculum rounded (0.3 cm long), hypanthium sometimes with two longitudinal ridges, stamens regularly to irregularly inflexed, anthers oblong, versatile, dorsifixed, dehiscing by longitudinal slits, style long and straight, stigma blunt, locules (3)4, the placentae each with 6 or more vertical rows of ovules. Flowers white.Fruit sessile to shortly pedicellate (pedicels 0–0.2 cm long), obconical, non-glaucous, 0.3–0.5 cm long, 0.6–1.1 cm wide, sometimes with two longitudinal ribs, disc raised, annular or almost level, valves (3)4, exserted. Seeds brown, 0.75–1.1 mm long, flattened-ovoid to more or less pyramidal or cuboid, dorsal surface shallowly reticulate, edge of seed with small sharp teeth, hilum terminal to sometimes ventral.Cultivated seedlings (measured at ca node 10): cotyledons oblong, stem square in cross-section; leaves opposite for c. 5 to 10 nodes, then alternate, always petiolate, ovate to broadly lanceolate, 7–14 cm long, 2.5–6 cm wide, base rounded to tapering to the petiole, dull green.
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