Trees to 20 m tall, deciduous. Bark grayish brown; young branches and petioles brownish pubescent. Leaves simple; petiole 5-15 mm; leaf blade obovate-elliptic, obovate-oblong, or oblong, 8-30 × 3.5-12 cm, membranous or papery, young leaves abaxially sparsely pubescent or densely pilose, crinite in axils of lateral veins, adaxially sparsely pubescent, then glabrous, lateral veins (10-)20-25 pairs, straight, running into teeth, base obtuse, margin serrulate or basally entire, apex sharply acuminate. Panicle terminal, erect, 15-25 cm, pubescent; branches flat, long and slender, axis 3-angulate. Pedicel short. Flowers ca. 3 mm in diam. Sepals 4 or 5, ovate or broadly ovate, ca. 1 mm, apex rounded, ciliate. Petals: 3 outer ones suborbicular, ca. 1.5 mm in diam.; 2 inner ones lanceolate, ca. 1.5 mm, entire. Fertile stamens 1-1.2 mm. Pistil ca. 2 mm; ovary glabrous. Drupe obovoid or globose, 4-5 mm in diam.; endocarp compressed-globose, midrib slightly prominent. Fl. summer, fr. May-Sep.

Humid forests, moist mountain forests, valleys, streamsides; below 2000 m. Anhui, Fujian, N Guangdong, NE Guangxi, N to SC Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, SW Shaanxi, Shandong, S Sichuan, Zhejiang [Japan, S Korea].