Mallee to 8 m tall. Lignotuber present. Bark rough on lower trunk for up to 1 m, with imperfectly shed grey curls, smooth above, grey over pinkish. Branchlets with oil glands in pith. Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): not seen.Adult leaves alternate, petioles 0.8–2.5 cm long; blade lanceolate, 5.5–12.5 cm long, 1–2 cm wide, base tapering to petiole, margin entire, apex pointed, concolorous, dull, green maturing glossy, side-veins at an acute or wider angle to midrib, reticulation moderate to dense, intramarginal vein remote from margin, oil glands mostly intersectional.Inflorescence axillary unbranched, peduncles widening apically, 0.7–1.6 cm long, buds ?9 to 13 per umbel, pedicels 0.2–0.4 cm long. Mature buds fusiform (0.9–1.2 cm long, 0.3–0.4 cm wide), scar present, operculum narrowly conical, up to twice the length of hypanthium and equal to it in width at the join, few outer stamens erect, most stamens deflexed to some extent, anthers oblong, versatile, dorsifixed, dehiscing by longitudinal slits, style long and straight, stigma blunt to tapered, locules 3 or 4, the placentae each with 4 vertical rows of ovules. Flowers whitish to very pale yellow. Fruit pedicellate (pedicels 0.1–0.4 cm long), barrel-shaped to cylindrical, 0.5–0.8 cm long, 0.4–0.6 cm wide, disc descending vertically, valves 3 or 4, at rim level.Seeds pale brown to straw-coloured, 1–1.5 mm long, sub-spherical to ovoid, surface smooth, hilum ventral/terminal.Cultivated seedlings (measured at ca node 10): cotyledons Y-shaped (bisected); stems square in cross-section, slightly glaucous to non-glaucous; leaves always petiolate, opposite for 3 or 4 nodes then alternate, ovate to deltoid, 6–8.5 cm long, 3.5–5.5 cm wide, base rounded to truncate or entire, greyish green to green or slightly glaucous.
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