Tree to 20 m tall. Forming a lignotuber. Bark rough throughout, coarsely stringy, grey to grey-brown and deeply furrowed. Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): stem rounded in cross-section, scabrid at first; juvenile leaves sessile or shortly petiolate, opposite for 4 or 5 nodes then alternate, ovate to elliptical, 6–12.5 cm long, 3–7.5 cm wide, base tapering to petiole, discolorous, scabrid on petiole, underside and margin for up to ca 10 nodes but later leaves concolorous, glossy, green, thick, glabrous. Adult leaves alternate, petiole 1.5–2.7 cm long; blade broadly lanceolate to falcate, 9–18 cm long, 2–5 cm wide, base oblique, concolorous, glossy, green, side-veins at an acute or wider angle to midrib, sparsely to moderately reticulate, intramarginal vein parallel to and well removed from margin, oil glands island, slightly irregular. Inflorescence axillary unbranched, peduncles 0.5–1 cm long, buds 7, sessile or on pedicels to 0.2 cm long. Mature buds ovoid to fusiform, 0.7–1 cm long, 0.5–0.6 cm wide, green, with longitudinal ridges, scar absent, operculum conical, stamens irregularly flexed, anthers reniform to cordate, versatile, dorsifixed, dehiscing by confluent slits, style long, stigma tapered, locules 3 or 4, the placentae each with 2 vertical ovule rows. Flowers white. Fruit sessile, hemispherical, 0.5–0.8 cm long, 1–1.5 cm wide, disc raised-convex, valves 3 or 4, near rim level. Seeds brown, 1.5–2.5 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 at least on the lower internodes; leaves opposite, subsessile to shortly petiolate and discolorous for ca 4 or 5 nodes then becoming alternate, ovate, 8–11 cm long, 4–6 cm wide, base rounded, margin irregular or entire, apex pointed, lamina more or less glabrous after alternation and concolorous, glossy, bright green.
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