Tree to 20 m tall but sometimes only to 4 m. Forming a lignotuber.Bark rough for only part of the trunk, rarely for most of the trunk, with the upper trunk and branches smooth. Rough bark long-fibrous and stringy where best developed lower on trunk, diminishing to fibrous/flaky then smooth pale grey and creamy white..Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): not seen.Adult leaves alternate, petiole 0.9–2.4 cm long; blade ovate to elliptical to ovate-elliptic or lanceolate, 7.2–15 cm long, 2–5.5 cm wide, base oblique or tapering to petiole, concolorous, glossy, green, thick, side-veins at an acute or wider angle to midrib, usually sparsely reticulate, intramarginal vein parallel to and well removed from margin, oil glands obscure.Inflorescence axillary unbranched, peduncles stout, 0–0.5 cm long, buds in umbels of 7, 9 or rarely 11, sessile. Mature buds usually ovoid to oblong, with 3 longitudinal angles, 0.9 cm long, 0.6 cm wide, green, very warty, scar absent, operculum conical to rounded or rarely flattened, stamens irregularly flexed, anthers reniform to cordate, versatile, dorsifixed, dehiscing by confluent slits, style long, stigma tapered, locules 4 or 5 each with 2 vertical ovule rows. Flowers white.Fruit sessile, the base cup-shaped to hemispherical, 0.5–0.6 cm long, 1–1.4 cm wide, disc raised-annular or raised-convex, valves 4 or 5, at rim level or strongly exserted.Seeds black or brown, 2–4 mm long, pyramidal or obliquely pyramidal, dorsal surface smooth, hilum terminal. Cultivated seedlings (measured at ca node 10): cotyledons reniform; stems rounded in cross-section, stellate-hairy until ca node 9 or 10 then smooth; leaves sessile and amplexicaul for ca 3 nodes then shortly petiolate, opposite until node 6 to 13 then becoming alternate, ovate-elliptic, 4.5–7 cm long, 3–5.5 cm wide, base rounded at upper nodes, margin entire, apex rounded and apiculate, stellate-hairy until ca node 9 or 10 then bright glossy green and glabrous.
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