Tree to 20 m tall. Forming a lignotuber.Ironbark to small branches, dark grey or black.Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): stem square in cross-section; juvenile leaves opposite for a few pairs, then alternate, sessile to shortly petiolate, lanceolate, 6–11 cm long, 1.4–2 cm wide, glossy green.Adult leaves alternate, petiole 1–2 cm long; lanceolate to broadly lanceolate to falcate, 7–15 cm long, 1.3–3.2 cm wide, base tapering to petiole, concolorous to slightly discolorous, glossy, green, side-veins at an acute angle to midrib, densely to very densely reticulate, intramarginal vein parallel to and just within margin, oil glands mostly intersectional.Inflorescence terminal compound or axillary compound, peduncles 0.3–1.1 cm long, buds 7 per umbel, pedicels 0.2–0.4 cm long. Mature buds obovoid to ovoid, 0.4–0.6 cm long, 0.3 cm wide, smooth, scar present, operculum conical to rounded or slightly beaked, stamens usually irregularly flexed, anthers adnate, cuboid, dehiscing by broad lateral pores or slits, style long, stigma blunt, locules 3 or 4, the placentae each with 4 vertical ovule rows. Flowers white.Fruit on pedicels 0.1–0.5 cm long, cup-shaped to barrel-shaped, 0.4–0.6 cm long, 0.3–0.6 cm wide, disc descending, valves 3 or 4, near rim level or enclosed.Seeds brown, 0.8–1.5 mm long, ovoid or flattened-ovoid, dorsal surface shallowly pitted, hilum ventral.Cultivated seedlings (measured at ca node 10): cotyledons reniform; stems square in cross-section; leaves always petiolate, opposite for 4–6 nodes then alternate, ovate to lanceolate, 6.3–9 cm long, 1.8–3 cm wide, base tapering, apex finely pointed, dull to ca node 5 then green, very glossy, discolorous.
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