Tree to 20 m tall. Forming a lignotuber.Bark smooth, mottled grey, white, pink or orange.Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): stem square in cross-section; juvenile leaves alternate, petiolate, ovate to broadly lanceolate, (5)8–12(14) cm long, 3–6.5 cm wide, base tapering to petiole to rarely rounded, dull, green.Adult leaves alternate, petiole 1.7–2.7(3) cm long; blade lanceolate to falcate, 8–18 cm long, 1–3.2 cm wide, base tapering to petiole, concolorous, dull, green, side-veins acute or at an angle slightly greater than 45° to midrib, moderately to densely reticulate, intramarginal vein present, oil glands mostly island.Inflorescence axillary unbranched, peduncles 0.7–1.6 cm long, buds 7, 9 or 11, pedicellate (pedicels 0.3–0.7 cm long). Mature buds elongated-ovoid (1.1–1.4 cm long, 0.3–0.5 cm wide), green to creamy, scar present, operculum conical to horn-shaped (0.8–1.1 cm long), stamens erect, anthers cuboid to oblong, versatile, dorsifixed, dehiscing by longitudinal slits (non-confluent), style long, stigma tapered, locules 3 or 4, the placentae each with 6–8 vertical ovule rows. Flowers white.Fruit pedicellate (pedicels 0.2–0.5 cm long), cup-shaped to hemispherical, 0.3–0.6 cm long, (0.5)0.6–0.8 cm wide, outer operculum scar prominent as a broad vertical rim, disc annular and free from the 3 or 4 strongly exserted valves.Seeds brown, 0.9–1.2 mm long, pyramidal to ± linear, dorsal surface smooth, hilum terminal. Cultivated seedlings (measured at ca node 10): cotyledons bilobed to oblong; stems square in cross-section; leaves always petiolate, opposite for 4 to 6 nodes then alternate, ovate, 5.5–8 cm long, 2–4 cm wide, base tapering to rounded, margin entire, apex pointed to rounded, dull, mid-green.
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