Trees, usually 7-15(-25) m tall; trunk to 35 cm d.b.h. One-year-old branchlets terete, glabrous, older ones usually with oblong lenticels. Bud scales glabrous outside, ciliate. Petiole 7-15 mm, glabrous; leaf blade oblong or oblong-lanceolate, 6-15 × 2-4.5 cm, leathery, most glabrous on both surfaces, midrib raised abaxially, impressed adaxially, lateral veins 6-10 pairs, slender, curved, somewhat conspicuous on both surfaces, veinlets densely reticulate, base cuneate or subrounded, sides unequal. Cymose panicles numerous, subterminal, slender, (3.5-)6-15 cm, glabrous, many flowered. Pedicel slender, 4-6 mm or more. Flowers yellowish green, small, 2-3 mm. Perianth lobes subequal, ovate-oblong, ciliate, outer ones hairy inside only, inner ones puberulent outside, villous inside. Filaments canescent villous at base, those of 3rd series with shortly stipitate glands at base. Staminodes triangular, long stipitate, villous. Ovary ovoid, glabrous; style slender; stigma subulate. Fruit globose, ca. 8 mm in diam.; fruiting pedicel ca. 6 mm, enlarged; persistent perianth lobes slightly thickened, loose, apex extrorse or patent. Fl. Jan-Mar, fr. Apr.

After publication of the family treatment for the Flora of China, this was treated as Machilus minutiflora (H. W. Li) L. Li et al. (Plant Biodiversity and Resources 33: 158. 2011).

● Mountain slopes, valley forests; 500-1500 m. S Yunnan.