Mallee to 6 m tall. Forming a lignotuber.Bark smooth throughout, mottled grey to pinkish or silvery. Branchlets lacking oil glands in the pith.Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): stems squared in cross-section; leaves always petiolate, alternate, narrowly lanceolate, ca 7–10 cm long, 1–2 cm wide, green.Adult leaves alternate, petiole 0.8–2.5 cm long; blade narrowly lanceolate to almost linear, 7-18(19) cm long, 1–2(2.5) cm wide, base tapering to petiole, concolorous, dull, grey-green, side-veins acute or at an angle greater than 45° to midrib, moderately to densely reticulate, intramarginal vein close to the margin, oil glands island, numerous. Inflorescence axillary unbranched, peduncles 0.5–1(1.3) cm long, buds 7, pedicellate, pedicels 0.1–0.4 cm long. Mature buds ovoid, scar present (outer operculum shed early), operculum conical to horn-shaped, rarely slightly beaked, 0.7–1.1 cm long, stamens erect, anthers oblong, versatile, dorsifixed, dehiscing by lateral slits, style long, stigma tapered, locules (3) 4 or 5, the placentae each with 6 vertical ovule rows. Flowers white. Fruit sessile or pedicellate, pedicels 0–0.4 cm long, cup-shaped to hemispherical, 0.6–0.9 cm long, 0.6–0.9(1) cm wide, disc raised, raised disc convex to oblique, valves 4 or 5, exserted. Seeds dark brownish-black, 1–1.5(2) mm long, ± cuboid to pyramidal, dorsal surface variably pitted, hilum terminal.Cultivated seedling (scored at ca node 10): cotyledons more or less oblong-reniform; stems squared in cross-section; leaves always petiolate, opposite for the first 3–5 nodes then alternate, lanceolate, 6–13 cm long, 0.8–2 cm wide, dull, grey-green.
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