Tree to 10 m tall. Lignotuber present or absent.Bark rough over the lower part of the trunk only, for up to 0.7 m, blackish grey, loose, fissured, fibrous, shedding in strips at its upper limit, smooth on upper trunk and branches, white to cream, pink and pale grey; sometimes smooth throughout.Branchlets have oil glands in the pith.Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): (from McQuoid & Hopper, ibid.) juvenile leaves always petiolate, alternate, ovate, 4.5–6 cm long, 3–4 cm wide, blue-green.Adult leaves alternate, petioles 0.5–1.5 cm long; blade ovate to elliptical, sometimes becoming lanceolate, 3.8–7.7 cm long, 1.5–4 cm wide, base tapering to petiole, thick-textured, margin entire or distantly indented, apex acute or rounded, concolorous, glossy, green, side-veins at an acute angle, reticulation sparse, intramarginal vein remote from margin, oil glands numerous, island.Inflorescence axillary unbranched, spreading, peduncles broadly flattened, 2–3.5 cm long, buds 7 per umbel, pedicels 0.2–0.4 cm long. Mature buds elongated, ca 2–3.3 cm long, 0.5–0.8 cm wide, widest on the hypanthium near join of the operculum, two ridges present on sides of hypanthium leading down to pedicel, scar present (outer operculum shed early), inner operculum horn-shaped, ca twice the length of the hypanthium, blunt or pointed, stamens erect, anthers oblong, versatile, dorsifixed, dehiscing by longitudinal slits, style long and straight, stigma blunt, locules 4, the placentae each with 4 vertical rows of ovules. Flowers creamy yellow.Fruit spreading, pedicellate (pedicels 0.2–0.3 cm long), obconical to campanulate, 0.8–1.4(1.7) cm long, 0.8–1.2 cm wide, disc at first level then descending, valves 4, at about rim level.Seeds dark brown, 1–1.5 mm long, ovoid to flattened-ovoid, dorsal surface shallowly reticulate, hilum ventral.Cultivated seedlings (measured at node 10): not grown (by us).
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