Domatia Tree

Endiandra discolor is a tree up to 25 m (82 ft) tall and very often buttressed. The bark is brown or brownish grey, smooth on younger trees. The bark of older trees is rougher, with small depressions in the bark which are sometimes inhabited by insects. Twigs and new shoots are covered with fine pale brown to white hairs, and twigs are fluted. The leaves are simple and arranged alternately on the twigs, measuring up to 10 cm (3.9 in) long and 5 cm (2.0 in) wide. They are glabrous above and dull grey-green to white below, and held on a petiole (leaf stalk) up to 10 mm (0.4 in) long. They are elliptic to ovate with 3–7 lateral veins either side of the midrib, and conspicuous foveoles at their junction with the midrib. Inflorescences are panicles produced in the leaf axils and are shorter than or as long as the leaves. The scented, creamy green flowers are small and pubescent, measuring about 2 mm (0.1 in) long and 5 mm (0.2 in) wide, with three inner and three outer tepals. The fruit is a shiny black drupe, about 17 mm (0.7 in) long and 13 mm (0.5 in) wide, containing a single brown seed about 14 mm (0.6 in) long by 9 mm (0.4 in) wide. The thin flesh is green, the cut seed is cream to pink. Like many Australian laurels, the seed is slightly ribbed.

Fruit are eaten by many rainforest birds, including the wompoo fruit dove, catbird, rose crowned fruit dove, superb fruit-dove and topknot pigeon. The leaves provide food for the larvae of the Macleay's swallowtail butterfly (Graphium macleayanum). The plant is also a larval host for the fruit fly, Bactrocera endiandrae.