Mallet to 7 m tall though often bushy. Lignotuber absent.Bark smooth throughout, grey to grey-green over coppery to orange.Branchlets have oil glands in the pith.Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): stems rounded in cross-section, may feel rough on lower parts; juvenile leaves always petiolate, alternate, ovate, 2–8 cm long, 1.5–3.5 cm wide, green to grey-green, lowest leaves may feel rough.Adult leaves alternate, thick, held erect, petioles 0.8–2 cm long; blade ovate to lanceolate, rarely almost elliptical, 4.5–8 cm long, 1–3(4) cm wide, base tapering to petiole, margin entire or indented, apex pointed, concolorous, green, glossy, surface appearing "glazed", side-veins acute or obscure, reticulation not visible, intramarginal vein remote from margin, oil glands numerous, round or slightly irregular.Inflorescence axillary unbranched, peduncles broadly flattened, erect to slightly spreading in bud and flower stage, 1.3–3.3 cm long; buds 7 per umbel, shortly pedicellate or sessile (pedicels 0–0.5 cm long). Mature buds elongated ovoid, 1.2–2.8 cm long, 0.4–0.7 cm wide, with the hypanthium wider than the operculum at the join, scar present (outer operculum lost early), inner operculum horn-shaped, sometimes slightly warty, ca 1.2–2.3 times the length of the ribbed hypanthium, stamens erect, in about 3 whorls on the broad staminophore, anthers oblong, versatile, dorsifixed, dehiscing by longitudinal slits, style long and straight, stigma blunt to slightly dilated, locules 3 or 4, the placentae each with 4 vertical rows of ovules. Flowers creamy white.Fruit on down-turned to spreading peduncles, sessile or shortly pedicellate (pedicels 0–0.6 cm long, obconical or less commonly almost barrel-shaped, 0.8–1.3 cm long, 0.7–1 cm wide, staminophore conspicuous, disc descending, valves 3 or 4, held at rim level or with fragile tips scarcely exserted.Seeds blackish brown, 0.7–2 mm long, ovoid to flattened-ovoid, dorsal surface shallowly and clearly reticulate, hilum ventral.Cultivated seedlings (measured at node 10): cotyledons Y-shaped (bisected); stems rounded in cross-section, scabrid or warty throughout; leaves always petiolate, opposite for 2 to 6 nodes then alternate, deltoid to ovate, 2–5 cm long, 1.5–3.5 cm wide, green to grey-green, scabrid on both surfaces until at least node 15.
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