Tree or mallee to 5 m tall. Forming a lignotuber. Bark rough at least on trunk and often on limbs, firmly fibrous or quite hard, shallowly, longitudinally fissured, grey to grey-brown; smooth bark of branches brown or pale grey. Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): stem rounded in cross-section, scabrid; juvenile leaves opposite and sessile for 7 to 11 pairs then alternate, petiolate, orbicular to ovate, 5.5–7 cm long, 4.5–5.8 cm wide, lamina "bubbly" at first but later leaves flat, margin undulate becoming entire, apex rounded or emarginate, glossy, green, thick; stems and leaves scabrid until node 7–10 then scabrid only on petiole and midrib on underside, then entirely smooth. Adult leaves alternate, petiole 1–3 cm long; blade ovate to orbicular to elliptical to lanceolate, 5–13 cm long, 2–7 cm wide, base oblique to tapering to petiole or rounded, concolorous, glossy, green, thick, side-veins acute, sparsely to moderately reticulate, intramarginal vein well removed from margin, oil glands obscure or very irregular, island. Inflorescence axillary unbranched, peduncles 0–0.3 cm long, buds in umbels of 3 or 7, sessile. Mature buds ovoid, globular or oblong, 0.6–1.5 cm long, 0.5–1 cm wide, green, warty, scar absent, operculum conical to rounded or flattened, stamens irregularly flexed, anthers reniform to cordate, versatile, dorsifixed, dehiscing by confluent slits, style long, stigma tapered, locules 4 or 5, the placentae each with 2 vertical ovule rows. Flowers white. Fruit sessile, hemispherical or cup-shaped, 0.6–1.7 cm long, 1–2 cm wide, disc raised-convex to annular, or level, valves 4 or 5, exserted or near rim level. Seeds black or brown, 1.5–3.5 mm long, pyramidal or obliquely pyramidal, dorsal surface smooth, hilum terminal. Cultivated seedlings (measured at ca node 10): cotyledons reniform; stems rounded in cross-section, stellate-hairy until ca node 8 to 10 then smooth; leaves sessile, opposite, cordate to ovate, stellate-hairy and discolorous for ca 7 to 11 nodes, then becoming petiolate and alternate and only scabrid on midrib on underside, 5–8.5 cm long, 3.5–5.5 cm wide, base amplexicaul at first becoming rounded to tapering at upper nodes, margin undulate, apex pointed, bright glossy green above, paler beneath.
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