Mallet to 12 m tall, stems fluted. Non-lignotuberous. Bark satiny or glossy, dark grey to orange, green-brown or yellowy green. Branchlets have oil glands in the pith. Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): not seen. Adult leaves alternate, petioles 0.5–1.3 cm long; blade linear to narrowly lanceolate, 6–9.5 cm long, 0.5–1.2 cm wide, base tapering to petiole, margin entire, apex pointed, glossy, green, side-veins at an acute or wider angle to midrib, reticulation sparse to moderate and broken, intramarginal vein close to margin, oil glands very irregular, island. Inflorescence axillary unbranched, peduncles short and stout, 0.1–0.4 cm long, buds 7, sessile or pedicels to 0.2 cm long. Mature buds ovoid to globular (0.6–1 cm long, 0.6–0.8 cm wide), scar present, operculum usually rounded and apiculate, stamens inflexed, anthers oblong, versatile, sub-basifixed, dehiscing by longitudinal slits, style long and straight, stigma blunt, locules 4(5), the placentae each with 6 to 8 vertical rows of ovules. Flowers lemon-yellow to greenish yellow. Fruit sessile, broadly and shallowly obconical to hemispherical, 0.3–0.6 cm long, 0.9–1.3 cm wide, disc level, valves 4(5), exserted. Seeds pale to mid-brown, 1–2 mm long, ovoid to flattened-ovoid or polygonal in outline, dorsal surface deeply, narrowly and closely fissured, margin toothed, hilum ventral. (Seedcoat often referred to as being honey-combed.) Cultivated seedlings (measured at ca node 10): cotyledons Y-shaped (bisected); stems rounded in cross-section, smooth; leaves always petiolate, opposite for 3 or 4 nodes then alternate, lanceolate, 5–9 cm long, 1–2 cm wide, dull, green.
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