Mallet to 8 m tall, stems fluted. Non-lignotuberous. Bark smooth throughout, shiny, olive-green to greenish brown or coppery. Branchlets have oil glands in the pith. Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): not seen. Adult leaves alternate, petioles 0.8–1.8 cm long; blade lanceolate, 5.5–9.5 cm long, 0.7–1.8 cm wide, base tapering, margin entire, apex pointed, concolorous, glossy, green, side-veins at an acute or wider angle to midrib, reticulation moderate to dense, intramarginal vein close to margin, oil glands island, very irregular. Inflorescence axillary unbranched, peduncles to 1 cm long or absent; buds 7, shortly pedicellate to rarely sessile (pedicels 0–0.3 cm long). Mature buds elongated-ovoid (1–1.4 cm long, 0.4–0.6 cm wide), scar present, operculum acutely conical to beaked, stamens inflexed, anthers narrowly oblong, versatile, sub-basifixed, dehiscing by longitudinal slits, style long and straight, stigma blunt to rounded, locules 4, the placentae each with 6 vertical rows of ovules. Flowers white. Fruit sessile or shortly pedicellate (pedicels 0–0.4 cm long), hemispherical to cupular, 0.5–0.8 cm long, 0.7–0.9 cm wide, disc level to slightly ascending, valves 4, exserted. Seeds brown to grey-brown, 1–2 mm long, ovoid or flattened-ovoid to polygonal in outline, dorsal surface deeply, closely and narrowly fissured, margin ragged, hilum ventral. (Seedcoat often referred to as being honey-combed.) Cultivated seedlings (measured at ca node 10): cotyledons Y-shaped (bisected); stems square in cross-section, slightly warty; leaves always petiolate, opposite for ca 4 to 6 nodes then alternate, lanceolate to broadly lanceolate, 6–9.5 cm long, 1.2–3 cm wide, dull, grey-green to green. Lamina on underside, petiole and stem feel slightly warty or rough.
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