Trees to 25 m tall. Branchlets robust, glabrous or minutely pubescent; buds sericeous. Petiole 2-6 cm, pubescent at first, glabrescent; leaf blade ovate, elliptic, obovate, or lanceolate to narrowly oblong, 6-11(-17) × 3-6 cm, papery or leathery, both surfaces densely silvery-gray sericeous at first, soon glabrescent, abaxially with minute black glandular spots, lateral veins 6-8 per side, prominently raised abaxially, veinlets prominent abaxially, inconspicuous adaxially, base rounded, obtuse, acute, or broadly cuneate, margin sparsely dentate, apex acuminate or acute, acumen obtuse. Raceme 3-6 cm; peduncle puberulent. Pedicel 3-4 mm, puberulent. Flowers polygamous. Bisexual flowers: sepals 5, oblong, ca. 4 mm, both surfaces pubescent. Petals oblong, ca. as long as sepals, both surfaces or only abaxially pubescent, margin entire or incised. Stamens 15; filaments very short; anthers ca. 2 mm, not awned at apices, puberulent. Disk 5- or 10-lobed, in circle. Ovary pubescent, 3-loculed; style ca. 3 mm, pubescent. Male flowers: sepals 5 or 6; petals 5 or 6; stamens 9-14; rudimentary ovary present or not. Drupe shiny, ellipsoid, 1-1.3 × ca. 0.8 cm, 1-loculed. Seed 1, ca. 8 mm. Fl. Apr-May, fr. May-Jul.

Evergreen forests; 400-2800 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Japan, Vietnam].