Tree to 15 m tall. Forming a lignotuber. Bark rough to small branches, stringy, furrowed, grey to grey-brown. Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): stem rounded in cross-section, scabrid; juvenile leaves subsessile, opposite for 7 to 10 nodes then alternate, narrowly lanceolate to linear, 2.5–7 cm long, 0.3–1.5 cm wide, margin scabrid and irregular, sometimes markedly undulate, discolorous, glossy, green; new growing tips, stems, leaf margin and midrib scabrid until at least 0.5 m tall. Adult leaves alternate, petiole 0.3–1.5 cm long; blade narrowly lanceolate to falcate or linear, 5–15 cm long, 0.5–2 cm wide, base oblique, concolorous, glossy, green, side-veins acute, sparsely reticulate, intramarginal vein parallel to and remote from margin, oil glands island. Inflorescence axillary unbranched, peduncles 0.4–1 cm long, buds in umbels of 7 to 15, sessile or on pedicels 0.3 cm long. Mature buds ovoid to fusiform, 0.4–0.6 cm long, 0.2–0.3 cm wide, green, scar absent, operculum conical to rounded, 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 0.3 cm long, truncate-globose to hemispherical, 0.3–0.5 cm long, 0.5–0.8 cm wide, disc slightly raised-convex, or level to slightly descending, valves 3 or 4, usually near rim level. Seeds 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, densely stellate-hairy; leaves sessile to shortly petiolate, opposite for 3 to 10 nodes then alternate, lanceolate, 2.7–7.5 cm long, 0.5–2 cm wide, base rounded to tapering, margin irregular, discolorous, glossy, mid-green above, paler beneath, sparsely stellate-hairy above, more so below.
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