Mallet to 12 m tall. Non-lignotuberous.Bark smooth, of 'oily' appearance, dark grey to light brownish grey over yellowish green or bronze.Pith glands present in branchlets; three-year old branchlets sometimes become glaucous.Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): not seen.Adult leaves held more or less erect, alternate, petiole 0.6–1.7 cm long; blade narrowly lanceolate, 4–10.5 cm long, (0.5)0.7–1.8(2) cm wide, base tapering to petiole, margins entire, apex pointed, concolorous, glossy, dark green, side-veins acute or obscure, reticulation obscured by numerous round oil glands, intramarginal vein close to edge or obscure. Inflorescence axillary, single, peduncles broadly flattened, erect, 0.5–1.5 cm long, buds 7 per umbel, shortly pedicellate (pedicels 0.2–0.6 cm long. Mature buds 2.4–3.2 cm long, 0.5–0.7 cm wide) scar present (outer operculum shed early), operculum elongated, tapering to a point, to 5 times the length of the globular hypanthium and narrower than it at the join, stamens erect, anthers narrowly oblong, versatile, sub-basifixed with the filament tapering abruptly, dehiscing by longitudinal slits, style straight, just shorter than the longest stamens, stigma tapering to blunt, locules (3)4, the placentae convex, each with 4 to 6 vertical ovule rows or the rows indistinct. Flowers yellow-green. Fruit erect, shortly pedicellate (pedicels 0.1–0.5 cm long), hemispherical, 0.6–0.8 cm long, 0.8–1.2 cm wide, disc narrow, descending obliquely to vertically, valves (3)4, strongly exserted. Seeds brown to straw-coloured, 1.8–3 mm long, cuboid to ovoid, dorsal surface narrowly and irregularly fissured, ventrally ridged, the margin irregular, hilum terminal or ventral. (Seedcoat often referred to as being honey-combed.)Cultivated seedlings (measured at ca node 10): cotyledons Y-shaped (bisected); stems square in cross-section, smooth; leaves always petiolate, opposite for 5 to 7 nodes then alternate, ovate, 2.5–4 cm long, 1.5–3.5 cm wide, base truncate to tapering, green to grey-green, dull.
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