Tree to 10 m tall. Forming a lignotuber. Ironbark to 3–7 cm diameter branches, grey. Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): stem square or rounded in cross-section; juvenile leaves always petiolate, opposite for 4–6 pairs then alternate, ovate to lanceolate, 7.5–20 cm long, 3–7 cm wide, base tapering to petiole, dull, green. Adult leaves alternate, petiole 1.5–2.8 cm long; blade lanceolate, 7.8–17 cm long, 1.7–2.5 cm wide, undulate, base tapering to petiole, concolorous, glossy or dull, green, side-veins greater than 45° to midrib, very densely reticulate, intramarginal vein parallel to and just within margin, oil glands obscure or apparently absent. Inflorescence terminal compound, peduncles 0.4–1 cm long, buds 7 per umbel, pedicels 0.3–0.8 cm long. Mature buds clavate to ± cylindrical, 0.8–1 cm long, 0.4–0.6 cm wide, scar usually present (first operculum sheds very early in bud development), operculum rounded, stamens erect or irregularly flexed, anthers cuboid or cuneate, adnate, slits or pores separate, style long, stigma blunt or pin-head shaped, locules 4 or 5, the placentae each with 4 vertical ovule rows. Flowers white. Fruit on pedicels 0.2–0.8 cm long, cup-shaped, obconical or hemispherical, 0.4–0.6 cm long, 0.5–0.7 cm wide, disc raised-convex to oblique, valves 4 or 5, exserted. Seeds brown, 1.5–2 mm long, flattened-ovoid, sometimes lacunose, dorsal surface shallowly reticulate, hilum ventral. Cultivated seedlings (measured at ca node 10): cotyledons oblong to reniform; stems square in cross-section; leaves always petiolate, opposite for 4–6 nodes then alternate, broadly lanceolate, 7.5–11 cm long, 3–7 cm wide, base tapering, margin entire, apex pointed, slightly discolorous, dull, grey-green.
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