Tree or mallee to 6 m tall. Forming a lignotuber.Bark smooth throughout, powdery white, weathering in patches to purple.Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): stems square to rounded in cross-section, glaucous; juvenile leaves always petiolate, opposite to alternate, orbicular, 4–8 cm long, 4.5–10 cm wide, base rounded to truncate, apex rounded, blue-grey to glaucous or weathering to green.Adult leaves alternate to sub-opposite, petioles 1.2–3 cm long; blade ovate to rarely broadly lanceolate, (3.5)6–9 cm long, 2–8 cm wide, base truncate to rounded to rarely tapering to petiole, margin entire, apex pointed, concolorous, dull and glaucous but weathering to grey-green, side-veins at a wider angle than 45° to the midrib, reticulation dense to very dense, intramarginal vein often looped well inside the leaf margin, oil glands obscure.Inflorescence axillary unbranched, peduncles 0.3–0.8(1) cm long, buds 7 per umbel, sessile to shortly pedicellate (pedicels 0–0.2 cm long). Mature buds glaucous, ovoid, 0.7–1 cm long, 0.4–0.6 cm wide, scar present, operculum conical to beaked (0.4–0.6 cm long), irregularly inflexed, anthers oblong, versatile, dorsifixed, dehiscing by longitudinal slits, style long and straight, stigma blunt to tapered, locules 3(4), the placentae each with 6 or more vertical rows of ovules. Flowers white.Fruit sessile to shortly pedicellate (pedicels 0–0.3 cm long), cup-shaped to rarely hemispherical, glaucous, 0.4–0.8 cm long, 0.5–0.7(0.9) cm wide, disc raised, valves 3(4), at rim level or exserted. Seeds brown to yellowy brown, 1–1.5 mm long, flattened-ovoid, dorsal surface shallowly reticulate, edge of seed smooth, hilum ventral.Cultivated seedlings (measured at ca node 10): cotyledons oblong; stems square in cross-section, smooth, non-glaucous; leaves always petiolate (petioles 1–1.5 cm long), opposite for 12+ pairs or becoming sub-opposite to alternate after ca 7 pairs sometimes reverting to opposite, ± orbicular, 3–4 cm long, 2.8–4 cm wide, base truncate to broadly tapering, margin entire, apex rounded, slightly glossy, green, discolorous.
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