Trees or occasionally large shrubs, to 20 m tall, deciduous. Branchlets densely gray to grayish brown tomentose. Petiole 3-5 mm, yellowish brown pubescent; leaf blade obovate to elliptic-obovate, 7-15 × 3-8 cm, both surfaces with yellowish gray stellate hairs, base cuneate to narrowly rounded, margin undulate to serrate, apex obtuse to shortly acuminate; secondary veins 8-12 on each side of midvein; tertiary veins abaxially conspicuous. Female inflorescences 1-4 cm; cupules 2-4. Cupule cupular, 4-8 × 8-11 mm, enclosing ca. 1/3 of nut; bracts ovate-lanceolate, crowded. Nut narrowly ellipsoid to ovoid, ca. 1.7 × 0.7-1.2 cm, glabrous; scar 5-7 mm in diam., slightly raised. Fl. Apr, fr. Oct.

* Mixed mesophytic forests; below 100-1900 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, S Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang