Shrubs or trees, evergreen, 1-5(-10) m tall; bark silver-gray. Branchlets terete or subterete, densely dirty-gray pubescent; terminal buds ovoid-conical, pubescent, apically acute. Petiole ca. 2 mm, pubescent; leaf blade abaxially greenish, adaxially dark green, shiny, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, (1.3-)1.5-3 × 0.5-1.4 cm, leathery, both surfaces glabrous, lateral veins 1-3 pairs, adaxially obscure, base rounded or truncate, margin sinuate-dentate with 1-3 pairs of spines, apex triangularly acuminate, acumen 1.2-1.4 cm, with a strong spine. Inflorescences: 1-flowered cymes, fasciculate, axillary on second year’s branchlets; flowers yellowish, 4-merous. Male inflorescences: pedicels ca. 1 mm, glabrous; bracteoles 2, suborbicular, above middle, ciliate; calyx ca. 2 mm in diam., deeply 4-lobed, lobes broadly deltoid or suborbicular, ciliate; corolla rotate, ca. 7 mm in diam., petals ca. 3 mm, broadly elliptic, apical half ciliate; stamens slightly longer than petals; rudimentary ovary conical-ovoid, apex obtuse. Female inflorescences: pedicels ca. 2 mm; calyx as in male flowers; petals free, ovate, ca. 2.5 mm; staminodes ca. 2/3 as long as petals, sterile anthers ovoid; ovary ovoid, stigma discoid. Fruit globose or depressed globose, 7-8 mm in diam.; persistent calyx quadrangular, ca. 2.5 mm in diam., ciliate; persistent stigma thickly discoid, 4-lobed; pyrenes 4, obovoid or oblong, 4.5-5.5 mm, ca. 3.5 mm in diam., abaxially palmately striate and sulcate, laterally reticulately striate and sulcate, endocarp thick, woody. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Oct-Nov.

● Forests or shrubby areas in valleys; 1000-2500 m. Anhui, S Gansu, Guizhou, Henan, W Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, S Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Zhejiang.