Shrubs 0.5-3 m tall. Branchlets brown, subglabrous. Petiole 1-7 cm; leaf blade lanceolate to elliptic, 9-15 × 3-6 cm, membranous to papery, both surfaces pubescent or adaxially subglabrous, secondary veins 7-9 on both sides of midvein, slender, abaxially slightly prominent, base narrowly cuneate, slightly decurrent, margin roughly serrate to serrulate. Inflorescence subglabrous; bracts linear. Sterile flowers with sepals 3 or 4, broadly ovate, connate from base to middle and forming a triangle or square 2.5-2.8 cm in diam. in fruit, translucent and thinly net veined. Fertile flowers with calyx tube turbinate, 4-5 mm; teeth 4 or 5, triangular-ovate to narrowly triangular, 4-5.5 mm, to 7 mm in fruit. Petals ovate, ca. 7 mm. Filaments filiform; anthers subglobose, ca. 1 mm in diam. Styles slender, ca. 1 cm in fruit; stigmas small. Capsule 8-9 mm, apically 6-8 mm in diam., striate. Seeds dark brown, compressed ellipsoid, 0.6-0.8 mm, thinly striate, shortly winged. Fl. Jul, fr. Sep-Oct.

The Chinese plants were described as Platycrater arguta var. sinensis H. Hara (J. Jap. Bot. 61: 70. 1986), which differs from the Japanese plants (var. arguta) in having leaf blades abaxially glabrous or sparsely pubescent with appressed hairs along veins (vs. abaxially densely hairy with spreading hairs along veins), and both calyx and ovary glabrous (see Katsuyama, J. Jap. Bot. 74: 317-319. 1999).

Sparse forests or thickets in valleys, stream banks, mountain slopes; 400-1800 m. Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi, Zhejiang [Japan].