Tree to 10 m tall, or mallee. Forming a lignotuber. Bark smooth throughout or with some persistent rough bark at the base of stems; smooth bark green to grey-green with coppery or brown patches. Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): stems square or round in cross-section, slightly glaucous or non-glaucous, warty or smooth; juvenile leaves opposite, sessile for ca 8 to 13 nodes then alternate, petiolate, at first orbicular becoming elliptic to ovate, 3–4 cm long, 2–4 cm wide, apex rounded or emarginate, margin entire or crenulate, base amplexicaul to rounded, dull, green to blue-green, slightly glaucous at growing tips but soon weathering to non-glaucous. Adult leaves alternate, petiole 0.8–2 cm long; blade lanceolate to falcate or ovate, 7–11.5 cm long, 1.2–2.5 cm wide, glossy, green, side-veins usually greater than 45° to midrib, densely reticulate, intramarginal vein parallel to and remote from margin, oil glands island or obscure. Inflorescence axillary unbranched, peduncles 0.2–0.4 cm long, buds 3 per umbel, usually sessile (rarely with 0.1 cm pedicel). Mature buds ovoid, 0.5–0.7 cm long, 0.3–0.5 cm wide, green, scar present, operculum conical, stamens inflexed, anthers cuboid to cuneate, versatile, dorsifixed, dehiscing by longitudinal slits (non-confluent), style long, locules 3 or 4, the placentae each with 4 vertical ovule rows. Flowers white. Fruit sessile, obconical or hemispherical, 0.4–0.5 cm long, 0.6–0.8 cm wide, disc raised-convex, valves 3 or 4, strongly exserted. Seeds black or brown, 1.5–2.5 mm long, ovoid or flattened-ovoid, lacunose, dorsal surface smooth, hilum ventral. Cultivated seedlings (measured at ca node 10): cotyledons bilobed to oblong; stems rounded or square in cross-section, warty or smooth, sometimes glaucous; leaves sessile, opposite for 9 to 15 nodes or sometimes remaining opposite for longer, orbicular to ovate, 2–4.5 cm long, 2.5–5 cm wide, amplexicaul, margin entire or subcrenulate, apex rounded to emarginate, concolorous, dull, green to grey-green.
Home