Stems erect, to 2.5 m tall; bark gray to grayish white, with white lenticels, yellowish green when young, setulose, finely furrowed. Buds grayish, ovoid, ca. 3 mm. Petiole short to almost absent, setulose; leaf blade varied in shape; earliest-formed blades obovate to obovate-oblong, usually long elliptic, tip whitish yellow, scale-like; later ones elliptic to ovate, 2-8 × 1-3 cm, both surfaces setulose, denser along the margin, lateral veins 7-9 pairs, base broadly or narrowly cuneate, margin serrulate. Male inflorescences terminal; peduncle 1.5-2.5 cm, sparsely brown pubescent. Male flowers: pedicel 6-10 mm; perianth pale green, ca. 3 mm in diam.; lobes ovate-lanceolate, ca. 1.5 mm. Stamens 4(or 5), shorter than lobes; anthers pale yellow. Female flowers solitary, terminal; lobes pale green, elliptic-lanceolate, 2-3 mm. Ovary glabrous. Drupe orange, ellipsoid, 10-15 × 6-8 mm, glabrous, rugose, without ridges; fruiting pedicel to 5 mm, sometimes almost absent; bracts lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, accrescent to ca. as long as fruit, 1-2.5 cm, deciduous. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Jun-Jul.

The fruit, which contains starch, is used as an oil or a food source, and in making wine. The young leaves are used as a vegetable.

* Mixed mesic to deciduous forests; 700-1800 m. Gansu, Henan, Shaanxi.