Elaeocarpus kirtonii is a large and often dominant tree, typically growing to a height of with a diameter of about , but sometimes to and diameter. There are buttress roots to a height of and the outer bark is silvery grey and thin, with small pustules. New growth is salmon-pink, the leaves clustered near the ends of the branchlets, narrow elliptic to narrow oblong, long and wide on a
petiole long. The leaves are dull green with prominent veins, regularly spaced teeth on the edges and turn red before falling. The flowers are arranged along racemes mostly long with between fifteen and twenty sweet-scented flowers, each on a
pedicel up to long. The five
sepals are very narrow egg-shaped to triangular, long and wide. The five petals are white, long and wide with about twenty-four linear lobes at the tip. There are between twenty-five and thirty
stamens. Flowering occurs from January to March and the fruit is a pale blue, oval
drupe long, maturing from October to January and containing a hard, sculptured stone. ==Taxonomy==