Tree to 12 m tall or sometimes a mallee. Forming a lignotuber.Bark rough to small branches, grey to whitish grey, box-type.Branchlets lack oil glands in the pith; glaucous.Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): stems glaucous, smooth; juvenile leaves always petiolate, alternate, orbicular to ovate, to 7-9.5 cm long, to 4.5-7 cm wide, base more or less rounded, apex rounded or broadly acute, glaucous. Adult leaves alternate, petioles 1–2.8 cm long; blade ovate to lanceolate or falcate, 7–19 cm long, 1–4.7 cm wide, base tapering, margin entire, apex pointed or rounded, concolorous, dull, blue with at least a slight waxy bloom or quite glaucous, side-veins at greater than 45° to midrib, reticulation very dense, intramarginal vein present, oil glands not visible or few and intersectional.Inflorescence terminal compound, peduncles rounded to angular, 0.3–1.7 cm long, buds (3)7 per umbel, may sometimes appear irregular due to internode elongation within the umbel, pedicels 0.2–0.5 cm long. Mature buds fusiform to ovoid or obovoid, 0.8–1 cm long, 0.4–0.5 cm wide, glaucous, scar present (outer operculum shed early), operculum beaked or less commonly rounded, stamens irregularly flexed, all fertile, anthers ± adnate (filament tip tapers abruptly), basifixed, cuboid, dehiscing by lateral slits, style straight and long, stigma blunt, locules 4(5), the placentae each with 4 vertical ovule rows. Flowers not seen.Fruit on pedicels 0.2–0.7 cm long, cupular to hemispherical, about as long as wide, 0.5–0.9 cm long, 0.5–0.8 cm wide, glaucous, disc narrow, descending vertically or almost so, valves 4(5), near rim level.Seeds dark brown, 1.5–3 mm long, flattened-ovoid, dorsal surface shallowly reticulate, hilum ventral. Cultivated seedlings (measured at ca node 10): cotyledons small, reniform; stems square in cross-section, slightly glaucous; leaves always petiolate (petioles 0.6–1.1 cm), opposite for 5 to 8 nodes then alternate, broadly lanceolate or ovate, 7.7–11.5 cm long, 1.8–4 cm wide, base tapering to petiole, apex pointed, grey-green to slightly glaucous, sometimes only glaucous on petiole.
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