Tree to 25 m tall. Forming a lignotuber.Bark on trunk partly rough to fully rough, often extending to larger branches, grey, box type; smooth bark grey to green, occasionally pink to brown.Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): stem rounded in cross-section, smooth, juvenile leaves opposite, sessile, orbicular to ovate, 5–9 cm long, 2–7 cm wide, base rounded or amplexicaul, margin entire or sometimes crenulate, apex rounded or pointed, glaucous.Adult leaves alternate, petioles 1.5–3.5 cm long; blade lanceolate or falcate, 10–19 cm long, 1.3–3 cm wide, flat, base tapering to petiole, margin entire, apex pointed, concolorous, glossy green, side-veins at an acute or wider angle to midrib, densely reticulate, intramarginal vein present, oil glands island.Inflorescence axillary unbranched; peduncles broadly flattened, 0.8–1.5 cm long, buds 7 per umbel, pedicels 0.1–0.4(0.6) cm long. Mature buds cylindrical to more or less pyriform, faintly ridged longitudinally, 0.6–0.8 cm long, 0.3–0.4 cm wide, non-glaucous, scar present, stamens irregularly flexed, anthers cuboid, versatile, dehiscing by longitudinal slits (non-confluent), style long, stigma blunt, locules 3 or 4, the placentae each with 4 vertical ovule rows. Flowers white or creamy white.Fruit on pedicels to 0.3 cm long or sessile, cup-shaped or barrel-shaped, 0.6–1 cm long, 0.6–0.9 cm wide, slightly angled longitudinally, disc raised or level or descending, valves 3 or 4, near rim level or slightly exserted.Seeds black, 2–2.5 mm long; ovoid to flattened-ovoid, dorsal surface shallowly to deeply pitted, hilum ventral.Cultivated seedlings (measured at ca node 10): cotyledons bilobed to oblong; stems usually square or rounded in cross-section, glaucous; leaves sessile and opposite for at least 13 nodes, orbicular to cordate, 4–7.5 cm long, 3–7 cm wide, amplexicaul or the base rounded, slightly discolorous, slightly glaucous to grey-green above and paler beneath.
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