Mallet to 14 m tall. Lignotuber absent.Bark smooth throughout, grey and creamy white over yellow, tan or pale salmon, shedding in conspicuous long ribbons.Branchlets glaucous; oil glands present in the pith.Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): not seen.Adult leaves alternate, petioles 1.1–2.5 cm long; blade lanceolate, 7-15 cm long, 0.7–2.3 cm wide, base tapering to petiole, margin entire, apex acute, concolorous, dull, blue-green to green, side veins acute, reticulation dense to very dense, intramarginal vein close to margin, oil glands intersectional and a few island.Inflorescence axillary unbranched, peduncles 0.5–1.3 cm long, buds 7 or 9 per umbel, pedicellate, pedicels 0.1–0.6 cm long. Mature buds obovoid to pyriform, less commonly cylindrical (0.7–1 cm long, 0.4–0.6 cm wide), glaucous or not, scar present (outer operculum sheds very early), operculum usually conical, often weakly radially striate, stamens inflexed, cuboid to wedge shaped versatile anthers, sub-dorsifixed, dehiscing by longitudinal slits, style long and straight, stigma rounded to tapering, locules 4, the placentae each with 4 vertical rows of ovules. Flowers creamy white.Fruit pedicellate, pedicels 0.1–0.6 cm long, hemispherical to cylindrical or cupular, rarely slightly campanulate, 0.5–0.7 cm long, 0.5–0.8 cm wide, glaucous or weathering non-glaucous, not ridged, disc usually descending vertically, valves 4, near rim level.Seeds reddish-brown and glossy, 1.5–2 mm long, flattened-ovoid and sometimes slightly angular in outline, dorsal surface shallowly reticulate, hilum ventral.Cultivated seedlings (measured at ca node 10): cotyledons reniform; stems square or rounded in cross-section, glaucous, slightly warty or smooth; leaves always petiolate, alternate after 3 to 4 nodes, ovate, 3.8–6.7 cm long, 2.2–4.5 cm wide, glaucous over grey-green.
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