Its leaves are lance-shaped to elliptic, the flowers cream-coloured or pale green, perfumed and tube-shaped, and the fruit a black drupe.

Cryptocarya glaucescens is a tree that typically grows to a height of up to 30 m (98 ft) with a trunk dbh of 90 cm (35 in), its stem sometimes buttressed.

[2][3][4][5] The flowers are cream-coloured to green, perfumed, arranged in panicles in leaf axils and usually shorter than the leaves.

[2][3][4][5] Cryptocarya glaucescens was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown in his book, Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae.

[8] Jackwood grows in rainforest, typically in poorer soils, from sea level to an altitude of 1,000 m (3,300 ft), between Mount Dromedary (36° S) in southern New South Wales to Eungella National Park (20° S), in central Queensland.