This species grows to a very large tree. It has a lignotuer, so burnt or coppiced trees usually recover in a multi-stemmed form. It has thick, rough, stringy bark, and glossy green leaves from six to 22 centimetres long, and 1½ to 7 centimetres wide. Inflorescence consists of seven to 15 white flowers. The fruits are barrel-shaped.Currently, the tallest known specimen is 86 m tall and located in Tasmania Historically, qualified surveyors have documented trees up to 98.8 m.
These huge trees are in high rainfall areas in deep soils but in cultivation on poorer quality sites they will not attain those large dimensions.
