Tree to 15 m tall. Forming a lignotuber. Bark rough to small branches or branches Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): stem rounded in cross-section, warty or smooth; juvenile leaves usually shortly petiolate, opposite for 7 to ca 20 nodes then becoming alternate (but may revert to opposite for a few nodes), narrowly lanceolate, narrowly oblong to linear or narrowly falcate 2.5–9 cm long, 0.4–1.2 cm wide, margin entire or crenulate, usually green, new growing tips not glaucous. Adult leaves alternate, petiole 0.5–2 cm long; blade narrowly lanceolate to falcate, 7.5–16 cm long, 1–2 cm wide, base tapering to petiole, margin entire, concolorous, slightly glossy or dull, green, side-veins greater than 45° to midrib, moderately to densely reticulate, intramarginal vein parallel to and well removed from margin, oil glands island or intersectional. Inflorescence axillary unbranched, peduncles 0.3–0.7 cm long, buds 7 per umbel, pedicels 0.1–0.2 cm long. Mature buds ovoid to fusiform, 0.5–0.7 cm long, 0.3–0.4 cm wide, yellow or green, scar present, operculum conical, stamens inflexed or irregularly flexed, anthers cuneate or cuboid, versatile, dorsifixed, dehiscing by longitudinal slits (non-confluent), style long, locules 3 or 4, the placentae each with 4 vertical ovule rows. Flowers white. Fruit sessile or pedicellate (pedicels 0–0.1 cm long), cup-shaped, hemispherical or obconical, 0.3–0.4 cm long, 0.4–0.6 cm wide, disc raised or level, valves 3 or 4, strongly exserted. Seeds dark brown or black, 1–2 mm long, ovoid or flattened-ovoid, usually lacunose, dorsal surface shallowly pitted, hilum ventral. Cultivated seedlings (measured at ca node 10): cotyledons bilobed to oblong; stems rounded in cross-section; leaves sessile to shortly petiolate, opposite for 7 to 20 nodes then alternate, linear to narrowly oblong, 4–14 cm long, 0.7–2 cm wide, base tapering, apex rounded, margin subcrenulate, green to greyish green.
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