Tree to 22 m tall. Forming a lignotuber.Ironbark to the small branches, dark grey to black, sometimes larger branches 8 cm diameter or smaller with smooth bark.Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): stem square in cross-section; juvenile leaves petiolate, alternate, lanceolate, 8–14 cm long, 1.4–3 cm wide, base tapering to petiole, green and strongly discolorous.Adult leaves alternate, petiole 1–2.5 cm long; blade lanceolate, 7.5–15 (18) cm long, 1.5–3 cm wide, base tapering to petiole, concolorous to slightly discolorous, glossy to dull, green, side-veins at an angle greater than 45° to midrib, densely to very densely reticulate, intramarginal vein parallel to and just within margin, oil glands sparse intersectional or absent.Inflorescence terminal compound or axillary single umbels, peduncles 0.4–0.7 cm long, buds 7 per umbel, sessile or on pedicels to 0.5 cm long. Mature buds ovoid to fusiform to ± cylindrical, 0.6–0.8 cm long, 0.3–0.4 cm wide, scar present (first operculum sheds very early in bud development), operculum bluntly conical to rounded, stamens irregularly flexed, anthers cuboid, adnate, slits or pores separate, style long, stigma blunt or pin-head shaped, locules 4, the placentae each with 4 vertical ovule rows. Flowers white.Fruit sessile or on pedicels to 0.5 cm long, cup-shaped to obconical to hemispherical, 0.5–0.7 cm long, 0.5–0.7 cm wide, disc raised-convex to oblique to annular or level, valves 4, exserted.Seeds brown, 1.5–2 mm long, flattened-ovoid, dorsal surface shallowly reticulate, hilum ventral. Cultivated seedlings (measured at ca node 10): cotyledons oblong to reniform; stems square in cross-section; leaves always petiolate, opposite for 4–6 nodes then alternate, broadly lanceolate, 7.5–11 cm long, 3–7 cm wide, base tapering, margin entire, apex pointed, slightly discolorous, dull, grey-green.
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