Trees to 20 m tall; bark dark gray, smooth. Branches dark gray or gray-brown; branchlets red-brown, densely pubescent when young, glabrescent. Buds stipitate, with 2 glabrous scales. Petiole 1-2 cm, densely yellow pubescent; leaf blade ovate, ovate-elliptic, or obovate-oblong, rarely lanceolate, 5-16 × 3-7 cm, both surfaces yellow pubescent along veins, abaxially bearded in axils of lateral veins, base subrounded or cuneate, margin obscurely and remotely minutely serrate or subentire, apex abruptly acute; lateral veins 12-17 on each side of midvein. Female inflorescence 1, globose or oblong, 1.5-3 × 1-1.5 cm; peduncle erect, robust, 1.5-3 cm; bracts woody, 3-4 mm, base cuneate, apex rounded, 5-lobed. Nutlet narrowly elliptic, ca. 3 mm, with papery wings ca. 1/3 as wide as nutlet. Fl. May-Jul, fr. Aug-Sep.

* Forests on mountain slopes, streamsides; 1500-3000 m. Guizhou, SW Sichuan, Yunnan