Trees to 4 m tall. Branchlets grayish brown to dark purplish brown, reddish brown pubescent when young, glabrescent, with few inconspicuous small lenticels. Petiole 8–10 mm, densely reddish brown pubescent; leaf blade lanceolate, 8–13 × 2–3.5 cm, subleathery to leathery, abaxially densely reddish brown pubescent, not glabrescent, and without or rarely with 2 flat nectaries near base, adaxially glabrous, base cuneate, margin entire, apex acuminate to caudate; secondary veins 6–8 on either side of midvein, abaxially raised. Racemes axillary, solitary or to 3 in a fascicle, 1.5–3 cm; rachises, pedicels, hypanthia, and sepals reddish brown pubescent; bracts ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, 1–2 mm, undivided, soon caducous. Flowers 2–3 mm in diam. Pedicel 1–2 mm. Hypanthium cup-shaped. Sepals 5, triangular-lanceolate, 1–1.5 mm, apex acuminate. Petals 5, oblong, nearly as long as sepals, sometimes almost undistinguishable from sepals, apex obtuse. Stamens more than 10. Ovary glabrous. Drupe dark purplish brown, oblong, 1.6–2 × 1–1.2 cm, glabrous. Fl. Sep–Oct, fr. winter to spring.

Evergreen broad-leaved forests, dense mountain forests; 2000--2100 m. SE Yunnan (Jinping Xian, Pingbian Miaozu Zizhixian).