Trees to 20 m tall; trunk to 60 cm d.b.h.; bark gray or grayish brown, peeling off in thin flakes; branches spreading or erect-spreading, rather dense; branchlets glabrous or pubescent. Leaves spirally arranged, sessile; blade dark green and glossy adaxially, grayish green, pale green, or tinged white abaxially, linear-lanceolate, oblanceolate, or oblong-oblanceolate, slightly curved, 1.7-12 cm × 2-10 mm, midvein prominently raised adaxially, slightly raised abaxially, base cuneate, apex mucronate or acute to long acuminate. Pollen cones axillary, usually in clusters of 3-5 on very short peduncle, spikelike, 3-5 cm, with several triangular bracts at base. Seed-bearing structures axillary, solitary, pedunculate, with few basal bracts. Receptacle red or purplish red when ripe, columnar. Epimatium purplish black when ripe, with white powder. Seed ovoid, ca. 1 cm in diam., apex rounded. Pollination Apr-May, seed maturity Aug-Sep. 2n = 38.

Forests, open thickets, roadsides; near sea level to 1000 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Sichuan, ?Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang; introduced or status uncertain in Shaanxi [Japan, ?N Myanmar].