Tree to 15 m tall, or a mallee; bark rough on lower half of trunk, compact, dark grey to grey-black, smooth, greenish above. Juvenile leaves sessile, opposite for many pairs, orbicular to ovate, to 9 cm long, 6 cm wide, dull, green; adult leaves petiolate, alternate, elliptic to broadly lanceolate, 5–8 cm long, 1.3–2.5 cm wide, concolorous, glossy, green; with 3 main veins and sparse reticulation. Inflorescences axillary, unbranched; peduncles to 0.5 cm long, mostly (9–)11(or more)-flowered; buds in stellate clusters, sessile, fusiform, to 0.6 cm long, 0.2 cm diam., no scar (single operculum); operculum acutely conical; stamens irregularly flexed; anthers dorsifixed, reniform; ovules in 2 vertical rows; flowers white. Fruit sessile, cupular to truncate-globose, to 0.5 cm long, 0.3 cm diam.; disc level; valves 3; below rim; seed brown, glossy, smooth, pyramidal but distorted by one curved face, hilum terminal. Flowers Feb.–Apr.
VRiv, GipP, NIS, EGU, HSF, HNF, MonT, HFE, VAlp. Also NSW. Typically occurs in poorly drained sites in subalpine woodlands in eastern Victoria, but is also known on dry sites, e.g. Brumby Point (where growing as a slender-stemmed mallee), and at lower altitude in cold valleys, e.g. Rose and Buckland River valleys.
