Tree to 20 m tall. Forming a lignotuber. Stringybark to ca 5 cm diameter branches, furrowed, grey over reddish brown. Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): stem rounded in cross-section, scabrid; juvenile leaves opposite for ca ?6 nodes, sessile, linear, 2–5 cm long, 0.2–0.4 cm wide, base rounded or tapering, apex pointed, discolorous, glossy, green; growing tips, stems, petioles and at least the leaf margins stellate-scabrid for many nodes. Adult leaves alternate, petioles 1–1.8 cm long; blade falcate or narrowly lanceolate, 7–13.5 cm long, 1–2.2 cm wide, base usually oblique, concolorous, maturing glossy, green, side-veins acute, sparsely reticulate, intramarginal vein parallel to and close to or remote from the margin, oil glands island, irregular, numerous. Inflorescence axillary, unbranched, peduncles 0.5–1.5 cm long, buds in umbels of 9 to 15, pedicels 0.1–0.3 cm long. Mature buds fusiform to narrowly ovoid, 0.4–0.6 cm long, 0.2 cm wide, green to yellow, smooth, scar absent, operculum usually beaked, stamens irregularly flexed, anthers reniform to cordate, versatile, dorsifixed, dehiscing by confluent slits, style long, stigma tapered, locules 3 or 4, the placentae each with 2 vertical ovule rows. Flowers white. Fruit sessile or on pedicels to 0.2 cm long, truncate-globose, 0.3–0.5 cm long, 0.5–0.7 cm wide, disc usually slightly raised and oblique, or level, valves 3 or 4, near rim level or enclosed. Seeds brown or reddish brown, 1.2–2 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; leaves sessile, opposite for 5 to 10 nodes then alternate, linear to narrowly lanceolate, 2–5 cm long, 0.2–0.5 cm wide, base rounded to tapering, margin irregular, apex pointed, discolorous, mid-green above, paler beneath, moderately stellate-hairy.
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