Tree to 15 m tall. Forming a lignotuber.Ironbark to the small branches, dark grey to black, sometimes larger branches 10 cm diameter or smaller with smooth white bark.Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): stem square or rounded in cross-section; juvenile leaves petiolate, alternate, ovate, 4–7 cm long, 2.2–4 cm wide, base rounded or tapering to petiole, dull, blue-grey.Adult leaves alternate, petiole 1.2–2 (2.4) cm long; blade narrowly lanceolate to lanceolate, 7.5–14 cm long, 1.2–3 cm wide, base tapering to petiole, concolorous, dull, green to blue-green, side-veins normally at an angle less than 45° to midrib, occasionally at a larger angle, very densely reticulate, intramarginal vein parallel to and just within margin, oil glands sparse intersectional or absent.Inflorescence terminal compound or axillary single umbels below this, peduncles 0.5–1.5 cm long, buds 7 per umbel, sessile or on pedicels to 0.5 cm long. Mature buds obovoid to ovoid or ± cylindrical, 0.5–0.8 cm long, 0.2–0.5 cm wide, scar usually present (outer operculum sheds very early in bud development), operculum bluntly conical to rounded, stamens irregularly flexed, all fertile, 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 0.6 cm long, cup-shaped to funnel-shaped, 0.5–0.7 cm long, 0.4–0.7 cm wide, disc raised-convex to oblique to annular or level, valves 4, exserted.Seeds brown, 1–2 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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