Tree to 30 m tall. Forming a lignotuber. Ironbark, furrowed longitudinally and kino-impregnated, grey and, atypically for ironbark, soft; extending to smaller branches. Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): stem rounded or square in cross-section; juvenile leaves always petiolate, opposite for 3 to 7 nodes then alternate, broadly ovate, 5–8 cm long, 3–5 cm wide, base truncate, rounded or tapering to petiole, discolorous, glossy, bright green. Adult leaves alternate, petiole 1–2 cm long; blade lanceolate, 6–12 cm long, 1.5–3.5 cm wide, base tapering to petiole, discolorous, glossy, green, side-veins greater than 45° to midrib, very densely reticulate, intramarginal vein parallel to and remote from margin, oil glands island and intersectional. Inflorescence terminal compound, and sometimes small panicles in sub-terminal axils also, peduncles 0.6–1.7 cm long, buds 7 per umbel, pedicels 0.3–0.8 cm long. Mature buds clavate to ovoid or diamond-shaped, 0.6–0.7 cm long, 0.3–0.4 cm wide, green to brown, at times faintly angled longitudinally, outer operculum shed early and scar may be obscure in mature buds, operculum conical to beaked, stamens inflexed, with outer staminodes, anthers adnate, positioned obliquely at filament tip, cuboid to cuneate, dehiscing by terminal pores, style long, stigma blunt, locules 3 or 4, the placentae each with 4 vertical ovule rows. Flowers white. Fruit on pedicels 0.4–0.9 cm long, obconical, 0.5–0.9 cm long, 0.5–0.7 cm wide, sometimes slightly angled longitudinally, disc descending, valves 3 or 4, enclosed. Seeds brown, 1–2 mm long, flattened-ovoid, often pointed at one end, dorsal surface shallowly reticulate, hilum ventral. Cultivated seedlings (measured at ca node 10): cotyledons reniform to oblong; stems square in cross-section; leaves always petiolate, opposite until nodes 3 or 4 then alternate, ovate, 5–9 cm long, 3.5–6 cm wide, base truncate to rounded to tapering, margin entire, apex pointed, discolorous, bright glossy green above, paler beneath.
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