Tree or mallee to 10 m tall. Forming a lignotuber. Bark smooth throughout or with persistent rough, fibrous bark on base of trunk for ca 1 m; smooth bark mottled white, grey, brown, cream or orange. Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): stem rounded or square in cross-section; juvenile leaves always petiolate, opposite for 4 to 6 nodes then alternate, lanceolate, 6–12.5 cm long, 1–5 cm wide, dull, green. Adult leaves alternate, petiole 0.7–2 cm long; blade lanceolate, 5–15 cm long, 0.8–3 cm wide, base tapering to petiole, concolorous, dull, light green, side-veins greater than 45° to midrib, sparsely to moderately reticulate, intramarginal vein parallel to and remote from margin, oil glands island. Inflorescence axillary unbranched, peduncles 0.3–0.8 cm long, buds 3 or 7, sessile to shortly pedicellate (pedicels 0–0.2 cm long). Mature buds ovoid to diamond-shaped (0.6–0.9 cm long, 0.3–0.35 cm wide), yellow or creamy, scar present, operculum conical (0.3–0.6 cm long), stamens irregularly flexed, anthers versatile, cuboid, dehiscing by longitudinal slits, style long, stigma tapered, locules 3 or 4, the placentae each with 4 or 5 vertical ovule rows (the rows may be obscure). Flowers white. Fruit shortly pedicellate (0.1 cm long), cup-shaped or hemispherical, 0.3–0.4 cm long, 0.5–0.6 cm wide, disc slightly raised and convex or oblique, to slightly descending, valves 3 or 4, strongly exserted. Seeds grey to black or brown, 0.8–1.3 mm long, pyramidal or cuboid, dorsal surface pitted, hilum terminal. Cultivated seedlings (measured at ca node 10): cotyledons reniform to oblong; stems square in cross-section; leaves always petiolate, opposite for 5 or 6 nodes then becoming alternate, broadly lanceolate, 10–12.5 cm long, 3–5 cm wide, base tapering, apex pointed, dull, green to grey-green.
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