Mallee to 3 m tall. Forming a lignotuber. Bark wholly smooth, pale orange and grey. Branchlets with small, clear oil glands in pith. Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): stems rounded in cross-section; juvenile leaves subsessile to shortly petiolate, opposite for 1 or 2 nodes then alternate, linear, 4.5–8.5 cm long, 0.3–1 cm wide, green to blue-green, dull. Adult leaves held erect, alternate, petioles 0.3–0.7 cm long; blade linear, 4.5–8 cm long, 0.3–0. wide, base tapering to petiole, margin entire, apex pointed, dull to slightly glossy, green, side-veins acute or obscure, reticulation obscure, intramarginal vein close to margin or obscure, oil glands irregular, island. Inflorescence axillary unbranched, peduncles widening apically, 0.4–1 cm long, buds ?9 or 11, usually pedicellate, rarely sessile (pedicels 0–0.3 cm long). Mature buds fusiform (0.6–0.8 cm long, 0.2–0.3 cm wide), scar present, operculum conical, only slightly longer than the hypanthium and equal to it in width at the join, all stamens inflexed, anthers oblong, versatile, dorsifixed, dehiscing by longitudinal slits, style long and straight, stigma rounded to blunt, locules 3 or 4, the placentae each with 4 vertical rows of ovules. Flowers cream. Fruit sessile or shortly pedicellate (pedicels 0–0.1 cm long), usually cupular, less commonly shortly barrel-shaped, 0.4–0.6 cm long, 0.3–0.5 cm wide, disc descending vertically, valves 3 or 4, near rim level. Seeds brown to straw-coloured, 0.6–1 mm long, sub-spherical and slightly flattened on one side, surface smooth, hilum ventral/terminal. Cultivated seedlings (measured at ca node 10): cotyledons Y-shaped (bisected); stems rounded in cross-section; leaves subsessile to shortly petiolate, opposite for 4 to 6 nodes then alternate, linear, 4.5–8.5 cm long, 0.3–1 cm wide, green.
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