Tall tree; bark smooth throughout, white to pink or coppery, shedding in thin, curling flakes, more often brownish, rough and fibrous on the trunk or on the branches as well; leaves opposite for upper 2-3 pairs or alternate, shortly petiolate, narrow, ovate to lanceolate, tapering at both ends, glossy, green to slightly blue, paler on the underside, gland dotted; inflorescence axillary, compound umbels; flowers small, off-white, short peduncled; hypanthium continuous with the pedicel and produced beyond the ovary; calyx tube sometimes without distinct sepals; petals entirely fused into operculum or calyptra, rounded to conical or sometimes slightly beaked; stamens many, free, filaments long, slender, anthers dorsifixed; ovary 3-locular, placenta axile, ovules many, style long, stigma blunt; fruits small, hemispherical capsule on slender pedicel, rim thin, barrel-shaped, valves 3; seeds reddish black, glossy, very small, boat-shaped, smooth, not winged.