Cryptocarya andersonii King ex J. D. Hooker, Fl. Brit. India 5: 120. 1886; Alseodaphne keenanii Gamble; A. medogensis H. P. Tsui.

Trees, up to 25 m tall, 30-45 cm d.b.h. Branchlets blackish, robust, striate, with few inconspicuous brown and oblong lenticels, rusty puberulent when young but glabrate when mature. Petiole robust, (2-)4-5.5 cm, concave-convex, ± rusty puberulent; leaf blade green-white abaxially, opaque adaxially, elliptic, 12-24 × 6-12 cm, subleathery, rusty puberulent when young but glabrate when mature abaxially, glabrous adaxially, midrib elevated abaxially, impressed adaxially, lateral veins 9-11 pairs, oblique, elevated abaxially, impressed or plane adaxially, evanescent within leaf margin, transverse veins remote, conspicuous, always forked, veinlets reticulate, shallowly foveolate, base acute to broadly cuneate, apex abruptly shortly acuminate. Panicle axillary on upper part of branchlet, 20-35 cm, many branched; terminal branch (3-)5- or 6-flowered; peduncle 10-15 cm, peduncle and rachis densely rusty puberulent. Pedicels slender, ca. 2 mm, dilated in fruit, densely rusty puberulent. Perianth lobes ovate, (1.5-)2-2.5 mm, densely rusty puberulent, outer ones smaller, 3-nerved, inner ones large, 5-nerved, all deciduous when in fruit. Fertile stamens small; filaments villous, those of 3rd whorl each with 2 large and nearly stalkless glands at base, others glandless; anthers of 1st and 2nd whorls oblong, glandular, with introrse cells, those of 3rd whorl rectangular, glandular, with extrorse cells. Staminodes minute, reniform. Ovary ovoid; style short and oblique; stigma capitate. Fruit oblong, up to 5 × 2.8 cm, green when fresh but purple-black when mature; fruit stalk fleshy when fresh, purple-red, ca. 1 cm, ca. 4 mm in diam. on dilated top. Fl. Jul, fr. Oct-Mar of next year.

This species is a dominant tree of evergreen broad-leaved forests in the region.

Evergreen broad-leaved forests from humid valleys to mountaintops; (1000-)1200-1500(-1900) m. SE Xizang, S and SE Yunnan [NE India, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam].