Trees to 35 m tall, d.b.h. to 80 cm. Bark grayish brown to dark gray, exfoliating. Young branchlets gray to grayish brown, densely covered with grayish white pubescence. Winter buds usually united, ovoid to ovate. Stipules linear-lanceolate, to 9 mm. Petiole 3-7 mm, pubescent; leaf blade ovate to elliptic-lanceolate, 3-10 × 1.5-4 cm, thickly papery, abaxially green to reddish purple and densely pubescent, adaxially green to brown and strigose, base slightly oblique, margin serrate to crenate, apex acuminate to acute; secondary veins 8-15 on each side of midvein. Male flowers: solitary or 2- or 3-clustered, shortly pedicellate. Female and bisexual flowers: usually solitary in distal leaf axil of young branchlets. Drupes pea green, subsessile, 2.5-3.5 mm in diam., surface covered by an irregular network of low ridges. Fl. Apr, fr. Sep-Nov. 2n = 28*.

The high quality timber is resistant to decay and the bark fiber is used for manufacturing ropes and paper.

* Beside streams; 200-1100 m (1800-2800 m in Xizang and Yunnan). Anhui, Fujian, S Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, S Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, S Shaanxi, SE Sichuan, SE Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang.