Trees to 20 m tall; bark gray. Branchlets dark brown, sparsely villous. Petiole slender, 6-10 mm, sparsely villous; leaf blade ovate-lanceolate, ovate-elliptic, elliptic, or oblong, rarely narrowly lanceolate or narrowly oblong, 2.5-7.5(-8) × 2-2.5 cm, abaxially villous along veins, bearded in axils of lateral veins, adaxially sparsely villous when young, glabrescent, base rounded or subcordate, margin irregularly and doubly mucronate serrate, apex acute or acuminate; lateral veins 12-16 on each side of midvein. Female inflorescence 4-7 × 2.5-3 cm; peduncle 1-1.5 cm, sparsely villous; bracts semiovate or broadly semiovate, 1.3-1.5 cm × 6-8 mm, villous along reticulate veins, outer margin irregularly dentate-serrate or lobulate-serrate, without basal lobe, inner margin entire, with inflexed basal auricle, apex acuminate; veins 5. Nutlet broadly ovoid, ca. 3 × 2.5 mm, glabrous except sparsely villous at apex, sometimes sparsely resinous glandular, ribbed. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jul-Sep.

* Temperate forests in mountain valleys, streambanks; 1000-2600 m. S Gansu, W Henan, W Hubei, S Shaanxi, Sichuan.