Mallet to 7 m tall, often with short trunk. Lignotuber absent.Bark smooth throughout, grey and pale tan to coppery.Branchlets with oil glands in the pith.Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): stems squared to rounded in cross-section, warty on lowest part but mostly smooth, non-glaucous or with slight waxy bloom; leaves opposite at first node but soon alternate on stem, petiolate, lanceolate, 4.5-8.7 cm long, 1.3-2.5 cm wide, base tapering to petiole, apex pointed, margin entire, green to grey-green.Adult leaves more or less erect, alternate, petioles 0–0.8 cm long; blade narrowly elliptic to linear, (3.5)4.5–9.5 cm long, 0.5–1.2 cm wide, base tapering to petiole, margin entire or distantly notched, apex pointed, concolorous, green, glossy, surface appearing "glazed", side veins acute or obscure, reticulation and intramarginal vein obscure, oil glands numerous, island.Inflorescence axillary unbranched, peduncles flattened, usually at least partly downturned, 1.2–3 cm long, buds 3(7) per umbel, pedicellate (pedicels (0.2)0.5–1 cm long). Mature buds elongated, 2–2.5 cm long, 0.6–0.8 cm wide (assymetrically fusiform but with hypanthium slightly wider than the operculum at the join), scar present (outer operculum shed early), inner operculum narrowly conical (tending to horn-shaped), slightly warty or smooth, stamens erect, anthers oblong, versatile, dorsifixed, dehiscing by longitudinal slits, style long and straight, stigma blunt to slightly dilated, locules 4, the placentae each with 4 vertical rows of ovules. Flowers white-cream.Fruit pedicellate (pedicels (0.2)0.4–1.2 cm long), barrel-shaped to obconical with ribs or narrow wings extending from upper hypanthium down the pedicels, (1.0)1.2–1.4 cm long, 0.9–1.2 cm wide, disc descending, obscured by persistent staminophore, valves 4, the tips at about rim level.Seeds dark brown to grey-brown, 1–2 mm long, ovoid to flattened-ovoid, dorsal surface clearly and shallowly reticulate, hilum ventral.Cultivated seedlings (measured at node 10): cotyledons Y-shaped (bisected); stems rounded in cross-section, warty; leaves always shortly petiolate, opposite for 2 to 4 nodes then alternate, ovate or narrowly so, 4.5–7 cm long, 1.3–2.5 cm wide, dull, grey-green to green. Leaves feel slightly rough when fresh, at least until ca node 11, due to warts or short coarse bristles.
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