Trees to 30 m tall; trunk to 1.5 m d.b.h.; bark brown, scaly; 1st-year branchlets pale brown; old branchlets grayish brown or yellow-brown, glabrous, rarely puberulent; winter buds black-brown, slightly resinous. Needles 2-5 per bundle, triangular in cross section, 3.5-7 cm × 1-1.5 mm, vascular bundle 1, resin canals 2, marginal, sometimes also 1 median, base with sheath shed. Seed cones usually solitary, pedunculate (peduncle 0.7-2 cm), reddish brown at maturity, cylindric-oblong or cylindric-ovoid, 3-9(-17) × 1.5-7 cm, slightly resinous. Seed scales cuneate-obovate, 2.5-3.5 × 1.5-2.3 cm; apophyses rhombic, apex thin, straight or slightly incurved. Seeds ellipsoid or obovoid, 0.8-1.2 cm, together with wing subequal to seed scales. Pollination Apr-May, seed maturity Oct of 2nd year.

A vulnerable species in China. It has often been confused, and even united, with Pinus fenzeliana (to which the records from Hainan might belong); however, the two species are not considered here to be conspecific.

Hills, slopes, mountain ridges, summits; 500-1600 m. N Guangdong, SW Guangxi, S Guizhou, Hainan, S Hunan [Vietnam]