Tree up to 20 m tall, rarely a mallee . Forming a lignotuber. Bark smooth throughout pale grey over powdery white to pinkish; sometimes with scribbles. Branchlets lacking oil glands in the pith. Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): not seen Adult leaves thin, alternate, petioles 0.8–1.8 cm long; blade narrowly lanceolate to falcate, (5)7–11(17) cm long, 1.3–2.5 cm wide, base tapering to petiole, margin entire, apex acute, distinctly discolorous, glossy and darker green above, side-veins greater than 45° to midrib, reticulation dense, intramarginal vein close to margin, oil glands scattered to numerous, mostly intersectional. Inflorescence axillary unbranched, peduncles terete, 0.5–1.5 cm long, buds 7, pedicels 0.1–0.6 cm long. Mature buds globular to almost diamond-shaped, 0.6–0.8 cm long and wide, scar present, operculum rounded when mature to almost conical, stamens inflexed, anthers oblong, versatile, sub-basifixed, dehiscing by longitudinal slits, style long and straight, stigma tapered to blunt, locules 4, the placentae each with 4 vertical rows of ovules. Flowers white. Fruit pedicellate (pedicel 0.1–0.6 cm long), cupular, 0.4–0.6 cm long, 0.7–1.2 cm wide, disc level to ascending, valves 4, exserted. Seeds grey-brown to brown, 1–2 mm long, flattened-ovoid, dorsal surface shallowly reticulate, hilum ventral. Cultivated seedlings (measured at node 10): cotyledons Y-shaped (bisected); stems not glaucous; leaves opposite, linear at first, becoming alternate after 7 or 8 nodes, petiolate, ovate, 3–6 cm long, 1.5–3 cm wide, dull, dark green.
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