Evergreen trees, 7-10 m tall. Branchlets green, smooth, striate, white pubescent, later deciduous. Buds ovate-oblong, ca. 4 mm, or ellipsoid and 7-8 mm; bud scales white pubescent. Leaves alternate; petiole 8-12 mm, white pubescent; leaf blade blue-gray abaxially, green adaxially, narrowly ovate, obovate, oblong, oblong-lanceolate, or elliptic, 8-13 × 2-4.5 cm, white pubescent on both surfaces when young, later glabrous or nearly glabrous, trinerved, midrib and lateral veins yellow, distinctly convex abaxially, slightly convex adaxially, base rounded or broadly cuneate, apex acuminate or caudate-acuminate and up to 2-3 cm. Umbels 3-5, inserted at top of 1-3 mm short branchlets in leaf axil, sometimes short branchlets developing into normal branchlets. Male flowers: tepals 6, elliptic, equal in length, laxly white pubescent on dorsal keel, glabrous inside; stamens 9; filaments white pubescent, 2-glandular near base in 3rd whorl; glands reniform, stipitate; reduced pistil white pubescent. Female flowers not seen. Fruits ellipsoid, ca. 8 × 6 mm when mature, laxly white pubescent and densely white pubescent on apex or glabrous when young. Fr. Jun-Aug.

Forests, mountain slopes, riversides, forest margins, thickets; below 100-3700 m. Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Nepal].