Tree or mallee to 8 m tall. Forming a lignotuber.Bark rough on half to all of trunk, hard, compacted, furrowed shallowly (almost like ironbark), or rarely fibrous, blackish-grey to grey, smooth above whitish and grey. Branchlets lacking oil glands in the pith. Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): stems rounded in cross-section; juvenile leaves opposite, sessile for ca 8 to 12 nodes then sub-opposite, becoming shortly petiolate at about 0.5–0.8 m tall, cordate to ovate, 3–10 cm long, 1.8–4.5 cm wide, bases slightly decurrent only at lowest nodes but soon amplexicaul then rounded, dull, green to slightly bluish green or scarcely waxy. Adult leaves alternate, petioles 0.8–2.3 cm long; blade lanceolate, 6.3–10.5 cm long, 1–2.2 cm wide, base tapering to petiole, margin entire, apex acute, dull at first but soon maturing glossy, green, side-veins at an acute or wider angle to midrib, reticulation moderate to dense, rarely obscure, intramarginal vein remote from margin, oil glands island and intersectional. Inflorescence axillary unbranched, peduncles (0.6)0.8–1.6 cm long, buds 7 per umbel, pedicellate (pedicels 0.2–0.7 cm long). Mature buds more or less ovoid but with prominent beak, 1–1.8 cm long, 0.5–0.7 cm wide, scar present, operculum with robust tapering beak, stamens inflexed, anthers oblong or slightly globoid, versatile, dorsifixed, dehiscing by short lateral slits, style long and straight, stigma blunt, locules (3)4 or 5, the placentae each with 4 vertical rows of ovules. Flowers white to pale yellow. Fruit pedicellate (pedicels 0.1–0.6 cm long), truncate-globose to almost barrel-shaped, 0.5–1 cm long, 0.8–1.1 cm wide, disc descending obliquely, valves(3)4 or 5, exserted or barely above rim level. Seeds dark brown to grey-brown, 1.5–3 mm long, flattened-ovoid, dorsal surface smooth, hilum ventral.Cultivated seedlings (measured at ca node 10): cotyledons Y-shaped (bisected); stems square in cross-section; leaves sessile, opposite for at least 25 nodes, ovate, 1.5–3.5 cm long, 0.8–1.7 cm wide, base slightly decurrent, margin entire, apex pointed, dull, grey-green to green.
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