Trees or shrubs to 20 m tall; trunk to 20 cm or more d.b.h.; bark dark reddish brown, peeling in strips. Leafy branchlets obovate, obtriangular, or ± rectangular in outline, plane, (4-)5-21 × (3-)7-20 cm. Leaves borne at 30-110° to branchlet axis; petiole 0.5-2 mm; blade deep green and glossy adaxially, linear-lanceolate, distally gradually attenuate (from proximal 1/3 of blade), falcate or ± straight, flat, (1.5-)3.5-12.5 cm × (1.5-)3.2-5 mm, leathery but usually rather soft and flexible, midvein 0.2-0.5 mm wide abaxially, stomatal bands (0.8-)1.2-2.1 mm wide, usually of (13-)17-24 rows of stomata, 2-5 × as wide as midvein, marginal bands 0.1-0.4 mm wide, base cuneate or shortly attenuate, asymmetric, margin flat or very narrowly revolute when dry, apex cuspidate, cusp 0.5-2 mm, often breaking off. Pollen-cone capitula of 6-14 cones, distinctly pedunculate (peduncle 2-5 mm), or sessile to subsessile (peduncle 0-2 mm), globose, 6-10 mm in diam.; bracts ovate, largest ca. 2 × 2.5 mm, margin ± entire or erose, apex acute; microsporophylls 6-16, each with 3 or 4 pollen sacs. Seed cones borne 3-6 together; peduncle 3-12 mm; seed scales ca. 1.5 mm. Aril yellow or green initially, turning purple when ripe, 1.4-2.5 × 0.9-1.5 cm, with numerous indistinct striations or prominent longitudinal ridges, apex very shortly mucronate. Seeds ellipsoid, 1.3-2.4 × 0.7-1.4 cm. Pollination Apr-May, seed maturity Jun-Oct.

Mixed, coniferous, and broad-leaved forests, thickets, roadsides; 200-3700 m. S Anhui, Fujian, S Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, S Henan, W Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [N Myanmar].