Trees 10-13 m tall; bark dark gray or gray-white. Branchlets drooping, black-brown, densely pubescent, filamentous villous. Petiole 4-7 mm, densely pubescent; leaf blade elliptic-lanceolate, oblong-lanceolate, narrowly lanceolate, lanceolate, or oblong, 6-12 × 1.7-3.5(-5) cm, subleathery, abaxially bearded in axils of lateral veins, adaxially glabrous, base rounded-cuneate, cuneate, or subrounded, rarely subcordate or rounded, margin irregularly and doubly mucronate serrate, rarely incised-serrate, apex acuminate, caudate-acuminate, or caudate; lateral veins 11-13 on each side of midvein. Female inflorescence 8-10 mm; peduncle ca. 2.5 cm, densely villous when young, glabrescent; bracts loosely overlapping, 2.5-3 cm × 7-8 mm, glabrous, 3-lobed, middle lobe narrowly oblong, falcate-oblong, lanceolate, or falcate-lanceolate, outer margin entire or undulate-serrate, with ovate, flattened basal lobe 2-3 mm, inner margin entire, with inflexed basal lobe equal to lobe of outer margin, apex obtuse, acute, or subrounded; veins 3-5, reticulate veins present. Nutlet broadly ovoid, 3-4 × 2.5-3.5 mm, with dense, brown, resinous glands and light yellow resin, prominently ribbed. Fl. Apr-Jun, fr. Jul-Sep.

Forests on moist mountain slopes, subtropical forests; 300-1800 m. S Anhui, Fujian, N Guangdong, Guangxi, SE Guizhou, Hainan, Hunan, Jiangxi, SC Sichuan, S Yunnan, Zhejiang [Laos, SE Myanmar, N Thailand, Vietnam].