Tree to 20 m tall. Forming a lignotuber.Bark rough over trunk and branches to 2–3 cm diameter then smooth, rough bark finely fibrous and prickly to touch, grey or grey-brown.Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): stem rounded in cross-section; juvenile leaves opposite and sessile until saplings 2–3 m tall, linear to narrowly lanceolate, 6–13.5 cm long, 0.7–1.8 cm wide, base amplexicaul, discolorous, dull, green.Adult leaves alternate, petiole 0.9–2 cm long; blade lanceolate to falcate, 6–15.5 cm long, 0.9–2.5 cm wide, base tapering evenly to petiole, margin entire, apex pointed, discolorous, dull, green, side-veins at ca 45° to midrib, moderately to densely reticulate, intramarginal vein remote from margin, oil glands island.Inflorescence axillary unbranched, peduncles 1–2.5 cm long, buds usually 11 to ca 15 per umbel, pedicels 0.2–0.5 cm long. Mature buds ovoid, 0.4–0.5 cm long, ca 0.2 cm wide, green to yellow, scar absent, the single operculum shedding at flowering, operculum conical to slightly beaked, stamens irregularly flexed, anthers reniform to cordate, versatile, dorsifixed, dehiscing by confluent slits, style long, locules 4 or 5, the placentae each with 2 vertical ovule rows;. Flowers white.Fruit pedicellate (pedicels 0.2–0.6 cm long), truncate-globose or barrel-shaped, 0.4–0.6 cm long, 0.4–0.7 cm wide, disc flat and placed just below rim or descending obliquely to vertically, valves 4 or 5, at disc level or ± enclosed.Seeds brown, 1–1.5 mm long, pyramidal or obliquely pyramidal, dorsal surface smooth, hilum terminal. Cultivated seedlings (measured at ca node 10): cotyledons reniform; stems rounded in cross-section; leaves opposite and sessile for at least 12 nodes, linear to narrowly lanceolate, 4–8.5 cm long, 0.5–1 cm wide, base amplexicaul at least to node 12, discolorous, dull, green.
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